Welcome to the latest edition of Marketer's Brief, a quick take on marketing news, moves and trends from Ad Age's reporters and editors. Send tips/suggestions to [email protected]. And to get the latest news as it happens, sign up for Ad Age newsletters here, including CMO Strategy.

Dos Equis and Droga5 continue to change the brand’s marketing two years after shelving "The Most Interesting Man in the World." But the Mexican import is still clinging to “interesting.” The new campaign is called “The Interesting Beer for Interesting Times.” The first ad shows a man who fails to read an app’s terms and conditions. As a result, Russia “owns” his face, and he is suddenly a spokesman for a nondescript Russian brand. The bright side: He “has never been more popular in Russia.”

A spokesman for Heineken USA says the campaign’s premise is that “The world is changing faster and in more unpredictable ways than ever before, and sometimes, you need a cold cerveza to process it all.” Additional ads are coming in April.

The effort follows "Keep It Interesante," the tagline that debuted in March of 2018 after the brand sidelined the "Most Interesting Man" and brought Droga5 aboard. The iconic character was created in 2006 by EuruRSCG (later called Havas), but lost steam when Dos Equis in October 2016 replaced the original lead, Jonathan Goldsmith, with French actor Augustin Legrand. Droga5 was hired in 2017.

A beer for smuggling 

When Mekanism won the Coors Banquet account from 72andSunny in late 2018, the feeling was the brand would dedicate much of its media budget to digital. But now the brew is coming out with a new campaign that will get TV airplay. The effort, called “Stolen, Smuggled, and Sought After Since 1873,” digs into the brand’s past, when it was sold only in western states—but in such demand that fans in the east made special trips to retrieve it. (A smuggling trip is the plot for the 1977 flick "Smokey and the Bandit.") Actor Paul Newman was said to require Coors on ice at all his movie sets, according to this 1975 story in the New York Times. The new ad is voiced by Sam Elliott, who has been the voice of Coors for years.

Brand owner Molson Coors in a statement said it has “increased our media spend considerably” for the campaign, “highlighting the fact that more drinkers than ever are responding well to beers with quality and history in their DNA.”

Can’t stop the ‘Trolls’ products

“Trolls World Tour,” the sequel to the 2016 “Trolls” movie, isn’t set to hit theaters until April. But food brands are already out with products tied to the DreamWorks animated flick. Earlier this week, Oreo gave fans a way to hear a song from the movie’s soundtrack, “Just Sing (Trolls World Tour),” by scanning an Oreo cookie on its site. Now, the song can be played without a cookie. There are two types of limited-time “Trolls” cookies. Queen Poppy Oreos have pink-colored creme with glitter; Pop Troll Tiny Diamond Oreos have green-colored creme, glitter and popping candy. People who buy the cookies can unlock an augmented reality experience featuring Poppy dancing to the song. And there’s a “Trolls World Tour”-themed Oreo TV spot featuring the song.

Meanwhile, Lay’s has put characters from the movie on packs of Poppables, and is offering the chance to win free tickets to the movie. There’s also a grand prize of a pair of tickets to six music festivals, playing off the premise of the movie, in which the trolls find out there are six different lands, each devoted to a different genre of music. And General Mills has “Trolls World Tour” Pillsbury cookie dough and themed boxes of Trix and Honey Nut Cheerios.

Dream jobs

Marketer’s Brief has learned about two real—but brief—jobs up for grabs. First, there’s the chance to be the Reddi-wip Everday Barista. The one-day gig in New York, on a date TBD, pays $15,000. Fans are supposed to submit videos to be chosen. The effort is meant to promote Reddi-wip Barista Series Nitro Creamer and Sweet Foam, which Conagra Brands introduced in 2019.

Silk, meanwhile, wants to hire a Granbassador to give a “grandparent stamp of approval” on using its dairy-free products in pies. That gig, timed to coincide with “Pi Day” on March 14, pays $10,000 to the grandparent chosen based on a photo, their favorite pie recipe and 150 words on why they deserve to be hired. The winner also gets a two-day trip along with one of their grandchildren to Silk’s Colorado headquarters and a year’s supply of Silk Dairy-Free Heavy Whipping Cream Alternative.

Customers get a piece of the profit pie

A new consumer goods company called arfa debuted this week (yes, lowercase). Helmed by execs from d-to-c beauty brand Glossier and Vice’s Broadly, the company is planning to launch a series of personal care brands, beginning later this month. Those brands will sell products that are co-created with customers who have a say in development. “Unlike the typical retail model, they’re finding products for their customers, not customers for their products,” says a spokeswoman. Such customers, essentially stakeholders, are called the Collective and receive 5 percent of profits.

Pizza Hut goes big

Pizza Hut brought back the Big Dipper, a nearly two-foot long, 24-piece pizza, first sold in 2011, that is rectangular, cut into strips and served with dipping sauces. The limited-time return of the pizza marks the first of several “Only from Pizza Hut” products and new pizzas the chain plans to offer this year as its new marketing team tries to reverse a sales slump. 

Where is he?

The Kool-Aid Man is missing, or should we say “missing.” Kraft Heinz this week began promoting the notion that the spokescharacter got lost while trying to find the new mystery flavor for Kool-Aid Mystery Jammers. It plans to send one winner on a $10,000 vacation anywhere in the U.S. once that person tracks him down and figures out the flavor. Of course, the idea of anyone traveling all over—even an oversized pitcher that says “Oh Yeah!”—is a bit odd given the shutdown on corporate travel, and plenty of people putting off vacations, due to coronavirus. Meanwhile, some will recall that it was a tear from Kool-Aid Man that helped the rebirth of Mr. Peanut into Baby Nut, another Kraft Heinz spokescharacter who has been silent on social media for a month. Maybe they’re together in a secret bunker?

Ally sets 60-day travel ban

As concern over the coronavirus epidemic grows, several companies are setting travel limits. Many tech brands including Apple, Google and Amazon have announced limits through April. Ally Bank is taking a more cautious view. The Detroit-based bank has discontinued international business travel and non-essential domestic travel for the next 60 days, a spokeswoman said Wednesday. Any essential travel in the U.S. requires executive committee approval.

Would you buy this? 

Keystone beer is out with a new fruity version called Keylightful. And no, that is not Spuds MacKenzie on the package.

*Please vote below. Last week, we featured Cap’n Crunch’s Berrytastic Pancake Mix and Cap’n Crunch’s Ocean Blue Maple Flavored Syrup. Marketer’s Brief readers are fans—with 77 percent saying they would buy the sweet breakfast treats.

Number of the week

$3.85 billion: How much PepsiCo is paying for energy-drink maker Rockstar Inc. in a deal announced today.

Tweet of the week

Comings and goings

Jimmy John’s named Darin Dugan as its chief marketing officer earlier this month. Dugan was previously VP of marketing at Sonic Drive-In. Both chains are owned by Inspire Brands. John Shea had been CMO of Jimmy John’s since 2017. The chain recently launched a campaign from WorkInProgress focused on its Freaky Fast rewards program.

Contributing: E.J. Schultz, Adrianne Pasquarelli, Jessica Wohl