Large Fierce Mammal

Television has seen an interesting, but not altogether surprising, advertising event of late: promotion of Dos Equis beer by The World’s Most Interesting Man. For those who have yet to see the ads of which I speak, TWMIM is portrayed as a gentleman of years and experience, even more so when we include his beard.

While the accomplishments of TWMIM are over the top fiction, advertisers have long known that sex sells; and now, Dos Equis has latched onto a truth that every thinking person understands: experience and self-confidence are sexy, and these ingredients don’t usually come wrapped in a young package that conforms to 21st century self-serving standards of beauty. That old school manners are cool; most women find it attractive when a man not only knows which way the bill of his ball cap is supposed to point, but also when to take the fucking thing OFF; that poking a woman on Facebook is a poor substitute for growing the balls to tell her, in an irresistibly tasteful and mature fashion, that you’d love to poke her for real.

Manliness is not a lost art, and its greatest icons transcend youth. Consider: In 1989, at nearly 60 years of age, Sir Sean Connery was voted People Magazine’s sexiest man alive. In his mid-sixties, Ian McShane played what is arguably the most primally sexy role of his career as Al Swearengen in HBO’s Deadwood. Don’t take my word for it. Ask Mrs. LFM who, you will recall, decisively claimed and married a man 25 years her senior. I throw these out as illustrative examples of a Great Truth, often encapsulated in the time honoured adage: Never fight with an old man. If he’s too old to fight, he’ll just kill you.

Early advertising forays into this area were made by the people who bring you Old Spice aftershave and assorted other miscellaneous scented masculine products. These ads featured the inimitable Bruce Campbell, star of such films as Army of Darkness and Bubba Ho-Tep, author of If Chins Could Kill and Make Love the Bruce Campbell Way. Classics all.

Take a look:

Not bad. And now we have the World’s Most Interesting Man. Sit back and give these gems a screening.

It is said that not advertising is like winking at a woman in the dark. You know you’re doing it but she doesn’t. These totally hit the mark and I hope they continue to help me crave Canadian beer.

Stay thirsty my friends.

Be Sociable, Share!

•