Actor Luis Guzman Eats Cheese In The Most Manly Way Possible

Actor Luis Guzman isn’t afraid to get cheesy for a role schilling Vermont cheddar; we’re not above using lame puns to describe it. So, hey, why is he selling cheese anyway?

Maybe their research showed that Latinos cook with as much cheese as the Chipotle menu suggests they do. Was Guzmán meant to be Cabot’s ambassador to Hispanic America?

We suspect not. In fact, that theory contains more holes than a slice of Swiss! Baroom-ching. Right, fellas?

Not exactly. It turns out that when Guzmán isn’t on set, he lives and works as a gentleman farmer near Cabot, Vermont. Roberta MacDonald, Cabot’s senior vice president for marketing, told me she runs into him around town all the time. So when she began developing a new series of TV spots, she gave Guzmán a call and asked if he’d star in them. He said he’d be delighted. Apparently Guzmán really does love Cabot cheese; he even offered to do the ads for less than his usual rate.

But MacDonald says that she didn’t use Guzmán merely because he was available. Cabot’s market research shows that while their cheese is eaten predominantly by men, it is purchased mostly by women. She wanted a series of ads that would convey to women that when guys get together to drink beer and eat cheese (which is not often enough, by the way), the cheese they want to find in the fridge is Cabot.

Gag. The only combination we can think of that would actually be worse beer and cheddar on the way down, it beer and cheddar on its way up a few hours later. Anyway, hey. Let’s insult Guzman’s face. Isn’t it totally ugly?

To this end, Guzmán is something of an inspired choice. Dressed in a checked flannel shirt, he makes a convincing average Joe. Yet at the same time, there’s something familiar about that ever-so-slightly porcine mug—you want to stop and figure out who he is and how you know him. If you have to listen to him talk about cheese in the meantime, so be it.

It’s true. We often find ourselves wondering, “Who is that pig-like man? And why are we suddenly in the mood for cheese.”

Cheese Puff [Slate]