Dos Equis Ad Analysis

Advertisements, as they do, sell whatever product or idea to the consumer. As technology and culture continue to evolve, advertisers try to hard keep up with their message . They have become less about selling the product and more about selling the image surrounding the product. This transformation into pop culture is illustrated by how 17.7% of audiences say the commercials are the most important part of the Super Bowl (Allen, National Retail Federation, 2016). The best ads—the most effective—make the consumer have an emotional connection. One of the best ads rated by AdAge is “Dos Equis: Most Interesting Man In the World” campaign. Launching in 2007, the ad transformed Dos Equis from a small and low popular beer to one of the fastest growing

Like most major industries, a few large corporations control majority of the market. For the beer industry, they are Anheuser-Busch InBev, Molson Coors Brewing Co., and Constellation Brands. Dos Equis is under the Heineken corporation umbrella, who is also one of the major players. In 2014, Anheuser-Busch held 20.8% of the global market share, Heineken was third at 9.1%, .6% behind second place SABMiller (Statista, 2014). When Dos Equis launched their ad campaign in 2007, the market was different. However, the big names of today were still at the top. As Pinkasovitch (2010) writes, during the later part of the 2000’s decade, “Bud light [had] retained its dominance in the beer industry with a 19.3% market share, practically double that of Heineken, Corona Extra, Bush and Keystone Light combined.” In 2007, Dos Equis had a challenging task to market their beer because controlling the market and capital did not belong to them. In fact, as Schutz highlighted before the ad campaign, Dos Equis was a “low profile” beer. To make it more difficult, regardless of the company and year, they are all sharing the same target audience: beer drinkers and men. According to a 2012 Gallup poll, American men tend to drink more than women, whites are more likely than non-whites, and ages of 18 to 49 are the heaviest drinkers of any age/gender group (Saad, 2012). Dos Equis was

As the ads run, Goldsmith’s character is performing some out-of-this-world action, while the narrator uses to hyperbole to exaggerate how interesting the man really is. One example is how the main character is riding a horse while standing the narrator says, “if he were to pat you on your back, you would list it on your resume”. This again plays into the emotional appeal, peripheral route, of advertising—causing positive connections with the audience. Emotions take one-fifth the time conscious cognitive brains takes to understand the same input (Hill, 2008). For advertising, this a powerful tool to affect their brand positively among consumers. By using the hyperbole, Dos Equis is emotionally connecting with the audience because they are using irrational connections making the audience laugh and smile. These connections of laughter and smiling are always with a positive reaction and are more easily remembered. According to Peter Noel Murray (Ph.D.), consumers primarily use emotions rather than information to evaluate brands (2013). Laughter and smiling will always be