Selected for being masters at the various skills required – including diving, conga dancing and sliding down banister, Mary Poppins-style – the 20 non-actors were cast in an open casting for the ad, which was shot on a specially-built boat set on a beach-side car park near Barcelona in Spain (complete with a 10 foot deep pool on the boat!).

Watch the video…

Responding to viewers’ doubts about whether the men featured in ‘The Odyssey’ were genuinely skilled, Heineken’s Global Communications Director, Sandrine Huijgen, said: “When we saw the comments about ‘The Odyssey’ TVC, we wanted to show that there are no boundaries between real and fake, proving that real men have unique skills, and everyone is legendary at something.”

Watch Heineken’s PR respond to sceptics’ comments about the authenticity of ‘The Odyssey’…

^{This post has been sponsored by Heineken but all thoughts are our own.}