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Quien es Mas Macho? More Cause Marketing for Dudes

In the lead-up to World Environment Day, Sunday, May 5, 2011 Budweiser is asking men to save water by forgoing shaving. Called 'Grow One. Save a Million' (GOSAM), the promotion has been going on in a low-profile way since 2010. Budweiser is also donating $150,000 to the River Network, a watershed conservation charity.

But the campaign has since gone Hollywood with the inclusion of Nick Offerman, the butch star of the NBC comedy Parks and Recreation.

GOSAM is premised on the fact that American men use an average five gallons of water per shave. Saving a million gallons of water should be pretty easy therefore, since 1,000,000 divided by 5 gallons is 200,000. Divide that by 20, the number of days a man might shave in a month, and the result is 10,000. So if 10,000 dudes quit shaving for a month in America, we’re there. Since beer starts with water, water conservation is a natural fit for Budweiser.

But Budweiser is relying on GOSAM to save water by being fun. In one release, Offerman is quoted as saying, “The only thing manlier than growing a big, burly beard is ripping a big, burly beard off of a charging grizzly with your bare hands.”

Budweiser’s positioning with Offerman reminds me of nothing so much as the old Bill Murray game show parody on Saturday Night Live called Quien es Mas Macho, or Who is More Macho? (You can watch that episode on Hulu.com, if you have a subscription).

In it, Murray played a game show host who quizzed contestants in high-school Spanish on who was more macho. As in: “Quien es Mas Macho, Fernando Lamas o Ricardo Montalban?” When the contestant rang in to answer Fernando Lamas, Murray’s response was, “No. Ricardo Montalban es mas macho.”

Es verdad!

GOSAM is primarily Facebook and PR-driven. The Facebook page has a pledge form not to shave and not much more. It kinda seems like something the Young Turks at Budweiser’s agency tossed off after drinking a few Buds and watching Sports Center. I couldn’t find any mention of it on Budweiser.com, for instance.

Too bad.

As a hirsute fellow myself, I think GOSAM has whiskers… er… legs. It wouldn’t take much effort to turn this into something very like Lee National Denim Day, only for dudes.
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