Juan Valdez: the smile, the mustache, the sombrero, the donkey. The Colombian mountains looming in the background. Juan Valdez: the smile, the mustache, the sombrero, the donkey. The contents of your kitchen cupboard looming in the background.
But one thing Juan Valdez did not have looming in his background was a hands-on knowledge of what it means to be a small coffee farmer in Colombia.
Since 1983, even during the meteoric rise of coffee behemoth Starbucks, the icon Juan Valdez has been the international ambassador for the National Federation of Colombian Coffee Growers.
And, because the Federation of Colombian Coffee Growers is a co-operative made up of half-a-million small Colombian coffee growers, banding together to brand their product on the consciousness of the coffee consumers of the world, it decided to remedy Juan’s shortcomings.
When, in May of 2006, actor Carlos Sanchez, who for 37 years had given life to Juan Valdez, decided to hang up his sombrero for good. In anticipation, the Colombian Coffee Growers, faced with finding a new Juan, had already begun searching within its own ranks.
Needing authenticity to offer to the ever-more-sophisticated coffee connoisseurs of the U.S. and Europe, the Federation began their quest for a Juan Valdez who was a hardened veteran of the coffee wars of the 1990’s. They hoped to find someone with whom their audience could connect on an emotional level. People pay more for coffee to which they feel connected.
Finding an emotionally-compelling Juan was serious business. Beginning in 2004, the Federation began combing through their 560,000 coffee growers, as well as Colombia’s coffee bars, and with the aid of psychologists and American branding experts, found their man.
With a name straight out of the annals South American magic, Juan Valdez’ new portrayer is Carlos Castaneda, a 39-year old coffee grower, raised in a family of coffee growers, in the town of Andes–remember the mountains looming in the background?–in Antioquia, a Northwest Colombian district.
Authentic, yes–but Hollywood looks, complete with cleft chin, don’t hurt a bit.
The donkey, by the way, has been played by hundreds of donkeys.
