• Ad Age, Thursday, July 16, 2009 10:48 AM

The 60-something "Connery-meets-Castro-meets-Hemingway" gent who "doesn't always drink beer" but imbibes Dos Equis when he does has given the Heineken USA brand a 17% sales bump at a time when other imported beers are headed in the other direction, Jeremy Mullman reports. Euro RSCG created the character who the police "often question just because they find him interesting."

"There's never really been an import brand that's been built so clearly through advertising," says Benj Steinman, publisher of Beer Marketer's Insights.

Aging men aren't usually the stuff of beer commercials, but Interesting Man's sense of mystique plays to the qualities that its youthful target find appealing. Plus, he doesn't compete with them, says Kheri Tillman, vp-marketing for Dos Equis. "He's more of ... an aspirational target for them." And for creatives, too, evidently. Several commenters to the story feel that it's among the best work ever done for the category.

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