Have you see the Dos Equis beer ad when you have been watching sports on TV?  It’s the one with three guys in an old row boat fishing.  A dad, son and a grandfather are sharing time together.

The father goes into the ice chest and pulls out two Dos Equis beers.  The dad, trying to be serious, says to his son, “Son, I need to tell you something.”  The young son responds, “What is it, Dad?” In a rather sober tone the father says to his son, as he looks at a label the bottle of beer, “If you have any question call 1-877-522-5001.”  The son, encouraged by that bit of advice, says in a heartfelt manner, “Dad, I’ve always wanted to hear you say that.”  The grandfather, having heard the exchange, adds his two-cents with, “I wish my Dad would have said that to me.” 

The beer ad ends by a voice encouraging the viewers of the ad the make father and son times specially by having a Dos Equis beer.  That’s it!  Forget any heart to heart conversation between men.  If you have any question call the number.  I called the number and hung up.  It’s the beer company.  I wonder what kind of wisdom they have for  men and their masculinity.

The ad, in my opinion, touches a nerve in the souls of many men.  It exposes the wound in the soul of men; that of an absent father. Why else would a beer company spend valuable advertising unless they got the attention of men.  I know they got mine. 

The tone of the conversation, in the fishing boat, was meant to be sober and reflective.  It is saying in a back handed way, “Men, we have a problem.  We don’t know how to deal with the real issues of the heart.  The best thing to do is call the beer company and then go out a enjoy a beer together.”

The ad actually makes me mad.  Communication of the heart between father and son is a vital.  Here it is made to seem trivial.  Instead of the soul talk that a young man with father hunger so desperately needs, we have a grandfather living with regret and a Dad failing miserably to share with his son.

Thomas Wolfe, writing about the search for father, observes, “the deepest search in life…..the thing that in one way or another was central to all living was man’s search to find a father, not merely the father of his flesh, not merely the lost father of his youth, but the image of a strength and wisdom external to his need and superior to his hunger, to which the belief and power of his own life could be united.”

My take on the ad – Grandfather and father missed a wonderful chance to speak life into a young man soul.  Their own lack of fathering didn’t allow them to pass on masculinity.  They had neither the words or the courage to go “below the surface.” That is the crisis of our day among men.  They have not been fathered, so they cannot pass on a healthy masculinity. 

To me this ad is a modern day lament.  It is the cry of young men needing to hear the masculine voice.  Men, don’t miss the opportunities you are given, like those in the boat, to speak life into the souls of sons and other young men in our life.