And here's another, which I don't think is as good as the first.
At first I hated these ads. My initial reaction was to view this as a lame, cheesy imitation of Chuck Norris style Internet humor, yet another desperate attempt by corporate ad hacks create coolness by lame imitation. The style of the commercial made me think of an especially overblown Will Ferrell movie, the kind enjoyed way too much by too many people which inevitably lead to more overblown Will Ferrell Movies which are essentially the same movie with a slightly different setting. Which pretty much means all Will Ferrell Movies made in the last 10 years (Stranger than Fiction being perhaps the only exception).
Even so, the commercial just seemed boring to me, another desperate attempt to shill cheap beer. I quickly wrote them off and forgot about them, until my opinion took a 180 degree turn after a hops and yeast fueled epiphany.
Recently I was at a Mexican restaurant, craving a burrito and a cerveza to wash it down. After looking down the selection of Domestic and Mexican Beers available, it suddenly hit me: I also prefer Dos Equis. That is, from the modest variety of beers available, Dos stood out as the clear winner. Downing one bottle quickly and working on the second, my mind flashed back to these ridiculous commercials. And suddenly I realized they weren't so bad. My original objections about hyperbole seemed silly: its a beer commercial for Godsake! And it actually isn't even that crazy in its endorsement of the beer in question, at least compared to the majority of other beer commercials. The character says that he doesn't always drink beer, but he prefers Dos Equis. Ok, fine. Compare that to claims made in the average Bud Light, Miller Light, Coors Light or other shitty domestic beer commercials, and the message is positively subtle.
Bud Light pays billions to run wave after wave of commercials hawking their swill. They imply that people will jump out of planes, fight wild animals, lie, cheat, steal and pretty much do anything short of murder (or maybe even that) to get their hands on that sweet, sweet diet rice water. The worst part is that Bud Light is clearly the worst of the major Bud products, inferior to both Budweiser and Bud Select (neither of which is even that great), and yet Bud Light is pimped the hardest of perhaps any beer in America. Maybe thats the point. I'm sure there's a Nobel Prize awaiting whoever can codify the relationship between the shittiness of beer and the amount of money and energy spent hawking it.
Miller claims that "Beer Heaven" is a bar which serves only Miller Lite. Gag. Actually, this commercial is even more flawed than that. The phrase "Beer Heaven" implies a place where Good little Catholic Beers go when they die, which to me suggests that the only beers which are actually drunk in beer heaven are the sinner beers, meant to suffer the indignity of being chugged down and pissed out by idiots for all eternity. And since Miller Lite is the only beer there being consumed, I can only infer that Miller Lite sucks even in the afterlife.
Coors Light may be worst of all commercials wise. The whole "Love Train" thing has been done for like 3 straight years and wasn't any good to begin with. Besides that, all they have is the "brewed cold" or "coldest beer on earth" bullshit, which is bascially an admission that their beer sucks and so they resort to appealling to the lowest of the low on the stumpy intellectual totem poll of beer drinkers. And the "Let's Vent" thing with the vented can? Jesus Christ that's lame.
Besides the (relative) subtly of the Dos Equis ad, I must admit its actually well shot and kind of fun once I got past my inititial reaction. I also like the fact that it doesn't air an average of 54 times an hour like typical beer ads, instead going for a quality over quanity approach, which has the added bonus of not pissing people off with numbing repitition.
But I guess the real reason I changed my mind is the hope that, since I realized that I too prefer Dos Equis, maybe I'm in line to be the next "Most Interesting Man in the World". Or at least to steal some of his cache of coolness. I'm already the most interesting writer on this blog, so maybe the addition of a sweet beard is the next step in my evolution into a walking bag of awesome. Stay Thirsty my Friends!
2 comments:
you just wrote a lot about that. a lot.
i don't usually drink beer, but when I do, I prefer dos Equis. I have used that line soo many times last may. I always try out a product that when it's commercial fancies me.
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