BAD COMMERCIAL/GOOD COMMERCIAL


BAD
The U.S. could declare war on Canada tomorrow and carpet bomb Toronto, and yet the city still wouldn't be as blanketed as much as it currently is by Koodo cellular ads. You can't walk ten feet downtown without seeing one of their giant, vaguely creepy billboards, or the TTC streetcar done up as the 'Koodo' car. And the commercials air roughly once per ad break on...well, just about any piece of Canadian programming.

I mean...dude. I can appreciate the marketing logic of making a big splash, but good gravy Davey, there's something to be said for easing up on the gas pedal after a while. The exercise video/phone gimmick is cute, but is this really enough to base your entire product on? The elongated informercial version that they play in movie theatres is just excruciating. If any casting directors are reading this, please, never cast the lead actor in that ad in any project. Blacklist him like Shoeless Joe Jackson.


GOOD
The key to Dos Equis' "The Most Interesting Man In The World" character is the word 'interesting.' He's not the coolest, or the smartest, or the manliest...just the most interesting. This laid-back attitude is what makes the ads so amusing. Heck, the guy himself even says that he doesn't always drink beer. Well, of course he doesn't. The world's most interesting man would surely have wine, liquor, or even a Coke on occasion. Maybe even a Coke Zero --- though those stupid eyeball/tongue ads could very easily have displaced Koodo in the 'bad' category this week.

Anyway, Dos Equis' ads are dash of Chuck Norris fact-era Chuck Norris, a pinch of Ernest Hemingway and a dollop of Charlton Heston, except minus the crazy NRA support and the being dead. They have even inspired me to order a Dos Equis the next time I'm in a bar, since what the hell, I have no beer-drinking allegiance to stick to. The website is also good for a laugh. It involves both a description of various kinds of beards and the phrase "Long story short, he died." Awesome.