By Robert Goldrich

Director Steve Miller of @radical.media knew he had run across something special upon reading the original script describing Dos Equis’ atypical spokesperson, “The Most Interesting Man In The World,” replete with bullet points outlining some of his endeavors and accomplishments.
    “It not only immediately struck me as funny but also as the kind of hyperbole that advertising sometimes gravitates towards. I instantly saw how ridiculously iconic this character could be,” recalled Miller.
    That initial script came from the Euro RSCG New York creative team of Brandon Henderson and Karl Lieberman who have since departed the agency but clearly left their mark with a campaign that premiered in 2007, with actor Jonathan Goldsmith in the title role.
    “I knew that the idea was special yet realized that its success depended on our finding the right guy,” continued Miller. “One thing I knew for sure is that he had to be older, a person who had clearly lived a life, the kind of guy that men would want to buy a drink for and who women want to have buy a drink for them.”
    Casting out a wide casting net in Miami, New York, Los Angeles and Buenos Aires, Euro RSCG and Miller caught Goldsmith. “When I first heard him speak, I said, ‘That’s him,'” recollected Miller, “and thankfully others around me agreed.”
    The bombastic notion of the world’s most interesting man has been tempered somewhat by the nature of the gent’s adventures, observed Miller. “What gave it context for me were such actions as his releasing a bear from a bear trap in the first campaign. That kind of curious, interesting, extraordinary behavior has continued each year. For example, we recently showed him running alongside the fox during a fox hunt, at the same time leaving into question exactly what our man is up to.”
    The annual multi-spot campaign has also managed to capture an inherent contradiction which Miller described as being “absolutely real, made-up footage of the man’s exploits.” Often added to the mix is a dash of having him at a table holding court, pontificating with an economy of words about love and life. The 2008 package included the short but sweet One Show Bronze-winning “Rollerblading” spot, which is billboarded as offering “the most interesting man’s take on rollerblading: “No.” And this year’s “Jai Alai” commercial again has tongue firmly planted in cheek, billing our protagonist as one “who lives vicariously through himself.”
    Euro RSCG, assessed Miller, has done a great job of building and staying true to the character. “Con Williamson [Euro RSCG creative director] has been masterful in shepherding the concept and maintaining its strength,” noted Miller.
    The character has become iconic but in a way not normally associated with advertising. “The Most Interesting Man” has an over-the-top kind of manliness that’s counterbalanced and advanced with a tongue-in-cheek dynamic. Every single vignette is a big wink at the audience, creating a character whose life takes on a larger than life scope while making fun of advertising’s role in terms of building that character.”
    Clearly the audience is winking back in a positive, tangible way as reflected in significantly increased sales for Dos Equis, which now has a “most interesting” brand identity.

Brand builder
   Miller knows something about building brand, having first established himself as an agency creative, perhaps most notably as an art director at Cliff Freeman and Partners, New York, where he collaborated with creative partner and his Syracuse University classmate Rick LeMoine. Miller moved onto Saatchi & Saatchi, London, then returned to New York at Chiat/Day. He then relocated to New Zealand to serve as creative director at Chiat/Day/Mojo in Auckland.
    Coming back stateside to freelance, he reunited with LeMoine. The creatives then got a big break, the chance to co-direct what turned out to be classic ESPN Sportscenter spots. This put them on the map as a directing team, a partnership which flourished for some six-plus years as evidenced by assorted honors, including a primetime commercial Emmy-nominated spot, “Amnesia,” for Computer Associates out of Y&R, New York. Then LeMoine and Miller decided to go solo, and have done so successfully for the past nearly seven years and counting.
    Miller has made his mark in human-based comedy. Recognizable moments have become a staple of his work, an example being Volkswagen GTI’s “True Men” for DDB Berlin which looks like it was created from home movies, and features male roughhousing, as well as the obligatory checking out of girls and looking at car magazines–typical guy stuff but all the funnier since it’s being done by little boys. The spot reaches out to “boys who were always men.”
    “I frequently find myself liking the ‘non-moments’ which can get people to relate to characters in otherwise interesting scenarios,” related Miller. Cases in point include a Starburst spot in which scientists/researchers are handling materials in a radioactive chamber but in a banal, matter of fact manner. This adds to the impact and humor when the guys later do the outlandish, entering the chamber to eat Starburst candy.
    A recently debuted Monster.com package consists of spots that too open on non-moments or the mundane. “I love it when I get the chance to concentrate on human behavior, the pieces of behavior that unfold in a given moment,” related Miller. “We’ve all been in the doctor’s office, sitting in our underwear on an examining table waiting for the doctor to come in. It’s an utterly human place to find yourself in and that’s what sets up one of the Monster spots.”
    Entitled “Doctor’s Examination Room” out of BBDO New York, the commercial opens on a male patient–stripped down to a t-shirt and a pair of boxers–sitting on an examination table. The doctor enters the room and dons a latex glove, asking the patient to stand up and relax. The latter is hard to do in that a stranger has also entered the room. Turns out it’s Scott, one of the physician’s friends who tries to put on a glove but breaks it.
    A voiceover then relates to us, “Until there’s take-your-friend-to-work day, there’s career mapping created to help you explore new career paths–only at Monster.com.”
    Often drawing audiences in with everyday life’s “non-moments” to which they can relate as is evident in Monster.com, Miller noted that Dos Equis’ “Most Interesting Man” fare has “stretched my comedy a bit into a distinctly different direction.”
    Miller observed, “The Dos Equis man is all about extraordinary over-the-top moments. The audience understands we’re winking at them, that this isn’t real life. By contrast the guy sitting on a doctor’s table for Monster.com gets an understood wink that this is a slice of life we’ve all been through before. It all just comes down to connecting with viewers, sharing a wink with the audience no matter how you accomplish it.”

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