Heineken Reality Series Is ‘Survivorman’ For The Common Man

Red Bull‘s winning YouTube channel is proving to be inspiration for other brands, and Heineken has now launched a series that seems directly inspired by the energy drink company’s model. The latest branded effort from the beer brand is Dropped, a series tied into Heineken’s Legends campaign where an adventurous Spanish man is dropped into the Alaskan wilderness and left to fend for himself.

The first episode introduces us to Rikar, a dashing Spanish man who isn’t particularly fond of the cold and applied for Heineken’s thrill seeking program while fully intending to end up somewhere warm. Of course, this being a series focused on the extreme, Heineken drops Rikar into a remote northern locale. From the first episode, Rikar’s new Alaskan home seems to be both utterly desolate and carefully engineered for the spot. The result is a branded version of Survivorman that focuses on a reasonably daring (but otherwise normal) young man.

Though Heineken products have yet to make much of an appearance, Dropped is in line with the company’s brand philosophy, which is centered around traditional male values. “Heineken drinkers like to think of themselves as worldly men, accustomed to trying new things and stepping outside of their comfort zone,” said Heineken global communications director Sandrine Huijgen. “With Dropped, it is the ultimate expression of being a worldly man–overcoming one’s inhibitions to seek new experiences.”

I still can’t to see how it is beer that ends up saving the day and delivering Rikar from his frigid exile, but I sure could use a cold one after watching.