Top Notch Guinness Ads Through the Ages - From the Iconic Toucan to Chanteuse Beer
In the world of advertising, few brands have managed to capture the imagination quite like Guinness. Founded in 1759, the Irish stout giant has consistently reinvented itself to stay relevant, pushing creative boundaries and making its black and white visual signature instantly recognizable worldwide.
One of the earliest milestones in Guinness's advertising journey was the Zookeeper ad, which made history in 1955 as the first ever TV advertisement in the UK. Fast forward to 1966, and the brand marked another shift with the Shipyard ad, positioning Guinness as the perfect reward after a hard day's work.
The 1980s saw Guinness launch the 'My Goodness, My Guinness' campaign, featuring vibrant posters of animals from the 'Guinness Zoo', and establishing the toucan as a prominent Guinness symbol. This was followed by the Pure Genius campaign in 1987, which leveraged striking visual metaphors and intelligent design to position Guinness as a sophisticated, premium product. The most iconic visual of the campaign was a diagram showing human evolution, culminating in a giant pint of Guinness.
In the late 90s, Guinness continued its creative streak with the 'Good Things Come to Those Who Wait' campaign. The Surfer commercial, released in 1999, was part of this campaign and was shot in Hawaii, depicting a group of surfers waiting for the perfect wave. The story drew inspiration from Walter Crane's 1893 painting Neptune's Horses and narration loosely inspired by Herman Melville's Moby Dick. Swimback, created in 1998 by Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO, was another part of the same campaign. Swimback transformed Guinness's perceived weakness - the lengthy pour time - into a virtue by reframing the wait as part of a delightful, special ritual.
In recent years, Guinness has continued to innovate. In 2007, Tipping Point was launched, Guinness's most ambitious and technically complex advertisement to date. Created by AMV BBDO and directed by Nicolai Fugslig, who had previously shot Sony Bravia's famous 'Balls' commercial, Tipping Point featured an extraordinary domino effect and was filmed with virtually no special effects, using hundreds of local residents as extras.
In 2016, Design Bridge (now Design Bridge and Partners) did a brilliant job of crafting a new Guinness logo, keeping existing fans happy while modernizing the brand for a new generation. More recently, the Holding out for a ZERO campaign was Guinness's largest ever 'responsible drinking' initiative in Ireland. The campaign was followed by the Holding out for a ZERO campaign in 2023, promoting Guinness's new 0% drink, Guinness 0.0.
The Welcome Back campaign, created by AMV BBDO in May 2021, was a perfectly timed emotional response to the reopening of venues after COVID-19 lockdowns. It marked another chapter in Guinness's ongoing commitment to pushing creative boundaries and connecting with its audience in meaningful ways.
Perhaps one of the most culturally significant TV ads ever created in Ireland is The Island ad, produced by Arks advertising in 1977. Set in a remote Italian village, the commercial featured an ageing local sports hero's annual swimming race, timed against a pint of Guinness being poured at a bar.
Throughout its history, Guinness's advertising has been a testament to the power of creativity and the ability to reinvent oneself. From the Zookeeper ad to the Welcome Back campaign, Guinness has consistently pushed the envelope, making its mark in the annals of advertising history.
