By Joseph Pisani, Business Writer
NEW YORK (AP) --Even the "Most Interesting Man in the World" is not immune to getting dumped.
Mexican beer brand Dos Equis is letting go of its gray-haired spokesman, 77-year-old Jonathan Goldsmith, and replacing him with another actor.
Goldsmith, known in the ads as the "Most Interesting Man in the World," has been appearing in Dos Equis commercials for about nine years. He's usually seen sitting at a table with a group of women before uttering the beer's slogan, "Stay thirsty, my friends."
Dos Equis is making the change to attract new drinkers, said Andrew Katz, the brand's vice president of marketing. Dos Equis, owned by Amsterdam-based Heineken, said sales of the brand have nearly tripled since the ads began airing in 2007.
A new "Most Interesting Man in the World" will appear in commercials later this year. A replacement has been chosen, but Katz declined to say who it is.
Goldsmith is not crying in his beer over the change.
"I feel terrific, I really do," Goldsmith said in an interview with The Associated Press. "I've had a great time in the last 10 years."
The ending of the Dos Equis relationship means he can consider TV offers and other ad opportunities, he said.
Fans of the ads approach him all the time.
"It's overwhelming recognition," said Goldsmith. "I would be literally mobbed."
In his last Dos Equis commercial–directed by Steve Miller of @radical.media for agency Havas Worldwide NY–Goldsmith is shipped off in a rocket on a one-way trip to Mars. He says, "Stay thirsty, my friends," for the last time as the rocket takes off.
Some brands have had a hard time getting rid of beloved pitchmen. Four years ago, travel website Priceline.com tried to kill off the Negotiator, played by actor William Shatner, in a fiery bus crash during a TV spot. But Shatner returned to the role just months later.
Goldsmith's space odyssey is more permanent, Katz said. "It's a one-way mission."
Review: Writer-Director Coralie Fargeat’s “The Substance”
In its first two hours, "The Substance" is a well-made, entertaining movie. Writer-director Coralie Fargeat treats audiences to a heavy dose of biting social commentary on ageism and sexism in Hollywood, with a spoonful of sugar- and sparkle-doused body horror.
But the film's deliciously unhinged, blood-soaked and inevitably polarizing third act is what makes it unforgettable.
What begins as a dread-inducing but still relatively palatable sci-fi flick spirals deeper into absurdism and violence, eventually erupting — quite literally — into a full-blown monster movie. Let the viewer decide who the monster is.
Fargeat — who won best screenplay at this year's Cannes Film Festival — has been vocal about her reverence for "The Fly" director David Cronenberg, and fans of the godfather of body horror will see his unmistakable influence. But "The Substance" is also wholly unique and benefits from Fargeat's perspective, which, according to the French filmmaker, has involved extensive grappling with her own relationship to her body and society's scrutiny.
"The Substance" tells the story of Elisabeth Sparkle, a famed aerobics instructor with a televised show, played by a powerfully vulnerable Demi Moore. Sparkle is fired on her 50th birthday by a ruthless executive — a perfectly cast Dennis Quaid, who nails sleazy and gross.
Feeling rejected by a town that once loved her and despairing over her bygone star power, Sparkle learns from a handsome young nurse about a black-market drug that promises to create a "younger, more beautiful, more perfect" version of its user. Though she initially tosses the phone number in the trash, she soon fishes it out in a desperate panic and places an order.
The one rule to follow is that... Read More