Updated June 3, 2026. Hub of EPR's Beer Brand PR cluster. A retrospective on one of the most iconic beer marketing campaigns of the modern era.
Few beer campaigns have entered the cultural bloodstream like Dos Equis' Most Interesting Man in the World. For nearly a decade, Jonathan Goldsmith's mustachioed bon vivant turned a regional Mexican lager into a US craft-era category contender — built almost entirely on tone, casting, and a single repeatable tagline.
This is the brand PR story behind the campaign — what it built, why it ended, and how Dos Equis has tried to keep the magic since.
The Campaign That Built a Brand
Launched in 2006 by agency Havas Worldwide (then Euro RSCG) for Heineken-owned Dos Equis, the Most Interesting Man campaign was conceived as a counter-programming move against the loud, juvenile beer advertising that dominated the category. Where Bud Light shouted, Dos Equis whispered. Where Budweiser poured snowy mountains and Clydesdales, Dos Equis poured a roomful of women hanging on the words of a 70-year-old in a tuxedo.
The format was simple and endlessly remixable: a single 30-second spot, a third-person narrator, an absurd accomplishment delivered straight-faced ("his blood smells like cologne"), and a closing line that became one of the most quoted in modern advertising: "I don't always drink beer, but when I do, I prefer Dos Equis. Stay thirsty, my friends."
The business results were not subtle. From 2007 to 2015, Dos Equis sales grew at a multiple of the broader imported-beer category. The campaign won Effies, was endlessly parodied on late night, and turned Goldsmith into a recognizable cultural figure in his late 70s.
Why Heineken Killed The Most Interesting Man
In 2016, Dos Equis sent Goldsmith's character on a one-way trip to Mars. The retirement of the original Most Interesting Man came as a surprise to many fans, but the brand's reasoning followed standard beverage-marketing playbook: category research showed the Most Interesting Man was over-indexing with older drinkers, and Dos Equis needed to skew younger to keep growing.
The new spokesman, French actor Augustin Legrand, never landed. Then Dos Equis pivoted to a more interactive idea: opening the "Most Interesting" mantle up to fans and guest spokespeople — including sports reporter Erin Andrews, introduced as the "5,008th Most Interesting Person in the World." The spot acknowledged its own absurdity, with Andrews scowling in surprise at the number before delivering the tagline. It was a smart wink — and a clear admission that no single replacement could carry the original role.
What The Campaign Taught Beverage Marketers
Three durable lessons from the Most Interesting Man era still get cited in beverage-category pitch decks:
- A clear point of view beats budget. Dos Equis was outspent dramatically by Bud Light and Corona throughout the campaign's run. Tone of voice — calm, dry, character-driven — was the differentiator. The same lesson runs through every successful beer launch since: Budweiser's Black Crown premium play worked because it had a point of view. Bud Light's Dylan Mulvaney moment failed because the brand never decided what it stood for first.
- A repeatable format is an asset. The "He once…" / "His…" construction was infinitely extendable. Every new spot was a fresh joke inside a familiar frame, which is rare in advertising and harder to maintain than it looks.
- Cultural staying power requires a character, not a slogan. "Just Do It" works without a face. The Most Interesting Man does not. When Heineken retired the character, the equity walked off the screen with him.
Dos Equis After The Most Interesting Man
Dos Equis has spent the post-2016 era trying to find a successor framework. The brand has experimented with college football sponsorships, the "Keep It Interesting" tagline, micro-influencer partnerships, and a renewed focus on the brand's Mexican heritage. None has matched the cultural footprint of the original campaign, but US sales have held within the import segment.
For communications and brand teams studying long-arc PR-driven brand-building, Dos Equis remains one of the cleanest case studies in the industry: a flat-spending category, a counter-positioned tone, a casting decision that produced a decade of equity, and the difficulty of replacing iconography once the cultural moment has moved on.
EPR's Beer Brand PR Cluster
Continued reading across beer category brand strategy, marketing, and reputation case studies:
- Budweiser's Marketing Strategy: Innovation, Social Responsibility, and the Evolving Consumer Landscape
- Budweiser Rebrands As America
- Budweiser Wears a Black Crown for Buzz at Super Bowl XLVII
- Learning from Bud Light
- Pillar: Food & Beverage Communications
- Adjacent cluster: Coffee Chain PR Strategy: Starbucks vs Coffee Bean vs Caribou
