PowerXX

Back in 2006, the advertising agency Euro RSCG created a campaign for Dos Equis beer called “The Most Interesting Man in the World.” It was huge success, with sales of Dos Equis seeing consistent significant increases over several years at a time when most imported beers were seeing declines. I always loved this campaign, and you can see an example here (and then follow the YouTube rabbit hole to see more — it’s worth your time).

I have been thinking of this campaign recently as I have been increasingly asked to talk about identity and behavior, specifically the former being the driver of the latter. I often find myself discussing Apple and Tesla as examples, because they are easy ones for most people to see “identity” in action. But the Dos Equis ads were also highly effective in this arena. Although funnily enough, from the research I have been able to do, this came about without it being a particular goal of the writers; a lucky goal then — and it scored big.

As you will see, the product is barely in the ad. Commonly this is a mistake in humorous ads, for example, most Dorito ads, because there the goal of the writer/director appears more to be to make you laugh (and be impressed by his writing) than it is to actually sell the product. As I have written for years, too many creatives don’t understand the difference between advertising and entertainment. But the Dos Equis commercials go about this differently, and it has a similar emotional trigger to the fentanyl prevention campaign I will be speaking about at the National Rx Summit in Nashville next week. —A “perceptioneering” trick I call “Someone cooler than me thinks this is cool/uncool.”

First, “The most interesting man in the world” (TMIMITW) is introduced by a narrator detailing his various feats and accomplishments. But TMIMITW is not shown in any braggadocious manner; he always seems to be enjoying life with those about him and they are always shown in joyous reverence of him. After setting up his resume in this way for almost the whole ad, it cuts to him and in the only time he acts or speaks to the camera he says, “I don’t always drink beer, but when I do, I prefer Dos Equis.” I still nod my head at the genius of that line (and the skill of the Account Executive who got the client to sign off on it). I am sure the urge from many quarters was to have this man extoll the virtues of Dos Equis and how, if you want to be like him, you need to drink it — as a thousand thousand low-horsepower ads do. But that is not what he does, and his downplaying it is what makes the spot so powerful. He does not always drink beer — because how could he be so interesting if he did? And he prefers Dos Equis. By comparison, if he absolutely had to have Dos Equis, he would come off as a fragile “bro,” and a lot less heroic. In doing no more than stating his preference, he leaves a huge opening for someone to “step into power” and make the same decision he does. But then it is their decision, not his.

As I stated in a talk last week at the Southern Plains Tribal Health Conference — and will again in Nashville — you cannot empower someone. Empowering is too often inadvertently depowering. Power needs to be “claimed” for one to feel powerful. If someone needs to overtly give you power, how powerful can you actually be? — Less than the giver, certainly. At no point does this ad even suggest what you should do. It does not even say that TMIMITW is driven to his choice. He just says that his preference is Dos Equis and thus leaves the door open for it to be your preference also. Your choice. Your power.

As I mentioned above, that’s not how the creators explain the ad, but it is actually why it was so effective. In this world that robs its inhabitants of so much power, finding opportunities to flex is intoxicatingly attractive. There are many good ways for this to be used (such as fentanyl prevention) and, sadly, quite a number of bad ways also.

Finding Power, Living Healthier.

It is giving me new ways to think about tackling loneliness, an epidemic that is surging throughout the US and one that IE is working on right now. Part of our work will be reframing “chosen solitude,” because if you choose to be alone for certain amounts of time, that is power. — Just as being alone, not by choice, is not. Helping people find an identity for themselves that comes with power-creating behavior helps them approach such issues in a different mindset and sets the scene for more achievable and affirming goals.

Similarly, over the last decade, we have done a lot of work on suicide prevention. But to approach it honestly, I now believe that it is important to recognize that there might be times when choosing to take one's life is not an absolute no. It might be the rational decision of a rational person. To not recognize this would be conveniently disingenuous for those in prevention. (To be very clear, I am not referring to times when people approach suicide as a permanent solution to a temporary problem – read on.)

I only recently read about the death of Daniel Kahneman, the author of Thinking, Fast and Slow, who flew to Switzerland last year because assisted suicide is legal there. He was 90, in decent health and quite happy. However, he had decided that he did not want to go through the long decline that unquestioningly lay soon in front of him. He wanted to go out on a good day of his choosing, not on a bad day culminating from a string of others. Who’s to tell him he’s wrong? Not me. (Nor the friends he gave advance-notice to.) Kahneman was a very learned, astute man. Pretty funny too. I saw him speak at Westmont College just five years ago; what a mind, yet with a capacity to make the complex simple to understand. How do you tell a guy like that he should not get to decide when he rationally wishes to bring his life to a close? Having honest discussions about such things allows one to be more trusted when talking others out of such a decision when it is being considered for the wrong reasons.

Over the last decade or so, we’ve seen a significant rise in suicides in several specific demographics, boomer-aged white males and American Indian young males being two that spring to mind. Although they are very different populations, I believe the causes are rooted in a similar stimulus: identity. When people believe that who they should be and who the world sees them as or treats them as is markedly different, it can create huge negative emotions: Anger, depression, feelings of failure, which can lead to a host of less than desirable outcomes, including suicide.

And here is another place where identity can be packaged in a way for good. The answers are not easy, but they must first begin with honesty. For many boomer-aged males, the promises made to them in their developmental years, of outperforming their parents, of retiring with a pension and a paid-off home, have just not materialized for them; our country is no longer set up in a way where such outcomes can be achieved with the metronomic reliability of yesteryear.

For American Indian males, they are torn by identities from two cultures that operate in opposition. Traditional Tribal culture is deeply rooted in community, in shared responsibility, in balance, in respect. Modern US culture promotes none of those things. Having identity in two seemingly oppositional worlds provides a source of unceasing tension. Strength and success in one culture can feel like weakness and failure in another.

Dealing with either of these issues cannot be effective if we imagine that they don’t exist or that there may be simple curative action (or the application of willpower). We need to help people develop healthy identities that can exist and flourish in the world as it is or as they can develop the power to shape it. Being in charge of what you have is much preferable to being controlled by what you don’t.

And we need to help people find power in fruitful ways, which are often less obviously extant, because when the feeling of powerlessness builds up, people, when left to their own devices and emotions, too often find power in the darkest of corners.