The Persuasive Power of "The Most Interesting Man in the World"

Entry #3: The Persuasive Power of  "The Most Interesting Man in the World"

In the series of commercials for Dos Equis beer, titled "The Most Interesting Man in the World", its marketing genius relies on strong pathos to sell its product--and, selling it does, through emotional appeal and subtle humor.  


The advertisements feature "The Most Interesting Man in the World", a gentleman.  He is all that an older gentleman might see himself as:  distinguished with perfectly styled, graying hair and beard, in expensively cut suits from expensive materials.  The commercials take the viewer through three past-life moments of "The Most Interesting Man in the World" in which he demonstrated great machismo and effectively proves how he became "The Most Interesting Man in the World."  Each commercial then cuts to a present day 'Most Interesting Man' (MIM), settled, who obviously reaps the reward of those past macho events, sipping Dos Equis while sitting with beautiful, young women, offering sage advice of a man who enjoyed a fascinating, interesting, and stimulating life.


The Dos Equis' campaign is compelling for several reasons.  First, it makes a promise that if you drink Dos Equis, you will have a life full of machismo (if you are a young man) or the comfortable life of gentry (if you are an older man).  The commercial appeals to all of the top three levels of Maslow's hierarchy of needs (Love/Belonging, Esteem, Self-actualization) of viewers by offering a simple fix, drinking Dos Equis.  Viewers believe the simple fix is credible as a result of the ad's visuals and rhetoric.  The ad contains visuals such as  expensively dressed men and women, enjoying genteel recreation (as opposed to being in the midst of a bar-fight), promising a self-actualized life.  The three clips depicting MIM in his youth demonstrate the road to being a self-actualized gentleman.  First, the clips show MIM with his psychological needs met:  he is surrounded by friends, enjoying intimate relationships.  Additionally, MIM's esteem needs are met when friends are shown to offer him prestige and show MIM as having a feeling of accomplishment.  Dos Equis reveals MIM going through the psychological needs three times, a proven "satisfying" number which appeals to a viewer's basic psychology for proof.  In doing so, Dos Equis has 'proven' that in the final scene, MIM is self-actualized, having achieved his full potential, whose fantastical life experience can be reduced to a single, philosophical quote:  "I don't always drink beer, but when I do, I prefer Dos Equis."  Second, the commercial's makers use word choice in the commercial's famous quote to lift its viewers to the level of self-actualization by choosing to use the word, "prefer", a powerful verb choice connotating the experience of Billy Budd, with the words, "I would prefer not to". 


Additionally, the Dos Equis' ad utlizes humor in the mode of advice to other males looking for a role model to become self-actualized.  "It doesn't take more than one person to talk to a woman,"  MIM advises.  Or, "Find out what it is in life that you don't do well, and then don't do that thing," he claims.  All of MIM's advice is simplistic so that any man can be "The Most Interesting Man in the World" by drinking Dos Equis.  At the same time, his advise is so simplistic, the viewers laugh at the thought, "Is that all there is to life?"    In the end, MIM leaves his viewers with his life-quest's, experiential advice:  "Stay thirsty, my friends."  Reminding the commercial's viewers that they need to shop for more Dos Equis beer so that they, too, can be like MIM.