POST
The Most Interesting Blog Post in the World
Thursday March 10th, 2011
Discerning ad buffs didn’t bat an eye at the recent explosion of machismo in ad campaigns. (For a cologne company, I think?) The classic campaign is the one for Dos Equis, starring Jonathan Goldsmith, the Most Interesting Man in the World, recently profiled in The New Yorker. But you are likely already familiar with him, not just from the TV spots, but also from photos in People and Entertainment Weekly, in addition to Billboards all over the Southwest, and even in-store stand ups in Australia. All of these images are the work of our very own Roger Snider.
Roger connected with Alex Tasch, senior art buyer at Euro RSCG in 2007, when he was still an emerging photographer. The client appreciated his ability to work without a large entourage in the midst of an ad shoot, and the experience had a certain learning curve for Roger:
I had worked on indie films and documentaries before, but never a big budget TV spot. Therefore I was directing Jonathan, the most interesting man, between each take at a frantic pace, because I didn’t know how much more time I had on each set up. After a few scenes, though, I figured it out and slowed down my rate of shooting and began to bounce ideas off of Jonathan. He was a pleasure to work with and had a great sense of humor. Over his TV career in the 70s and 80s he guest starred in many of my favorite TV shows, from the A-Team and Knight Rider to The Fall Guy and Chips. This provided lots of Q&A on my part during lunches. His ability to improvise is fantastic. As the director and client looked over play back, I jumped in and began to just have fun getting various expressions and poses with whatever props might be around.
Since then, the assignment has led to a productive relationship with Euro, and Roger’s photographs have been more closely integrated into the campaigns. He is now known as the “Photo Ninja,” for his ability to position himself at the critical vantage point without interfering with the TV crew.
And what was it like to work with this international man of mystery? “He really is the Most Interesting Man in the World,” Roger assures me. “I have lunched with him a few times, including the famous Canter’s deli here in my hood. I even went with him to Samy’s camera to help him pick out the right Canon point and shoot for his most recent trip back east.”
Roger and Jonathan, the two most interesting men in the world.
-Asad
I had a similar situation to this recently, and have a question. When working on a set like this for a commercial, the lighting is rigged, the set is staged, basically everything is pre- managed for the photographer, and said photographer is asked to shoot still images that will then be used as the main print campaign, how does the photographer bill for that shoot? As a unit stills photographer? Or as a major print campaign photographer? I see the value is there in the usage, but the creative work is pretty much that of unit stills, which is considerably lower creative fee.
[...] Wonderful Machine ran a nice blog post this morning about my work with Dos XX TV over the last 4 years. Here is the link: [...]
Seductively French would enjoy working with the most interesting man in the world. We will have to nominate my wife, Slavica as the most interesting woman in the world!