Dos Equis’s “Most Interesting Man in the World”: The Beer Ad That Became a Meme

A bearded, silver-haired man appears in short scenes that go from a party to an adventure to something completely impossible, while a narrator lists facts about him that grow more absurd with each one. At the end he holds a bottle of Dos Equis and says the line that defined the campaign: “I don’t always drink beer, but when I do, I prefer Dos Equis. Stay thirsty, my friends.”

The campaign started in 2006, created by Euro RSCG, later Havas Worldwide, for the Cuauhtémoc Moctezuma Brewery. The character was played by Jonathan Goldsmith, who won the role with an unusual audition: he began by taking off one sock and then improvised for thirty minutes. He went on to play the role from 2006 to 2016.

The results were strong. Sales of the beer rose every year between 2006 and 2010, Canadian sales tripled in 2008, and at one point U.S. sales grew 22% while other imported beer fell 4%. The character escaped the ads too. The format “I don’t always [X], but when I do, [Y]” became one of the internet’s best-known memes, and the character was featured in a Saturday Night Live sketch in 2012.

Goldsmith retired in March 2016, with a final ad that sent him to Mars, and a French actor replaced him that September. The original campaign ended in 2018 and was replaced by “Keep It Interesante.” In January 2026 the brand brought Goldsmith back, which shows how strongly people still remember a character who never had to sell the beer directly.