Guinness: “Surfer”
Surfers wait for the perfect wave, which arrives with white horses galloping in the surf.
- Brand
- Guinness
- Year
- 1999
- Agency
- AMV BBDO
- Category
- Beer
A group of surfers sit and wait on a Hawaiian beach, filmed in grainy black and white. A voice talks about waiting, like Captain Ahab waiting for his whale. Then the wave comes, huge, and as they ride it, white horses appear, galloping inside the crashing water, to the pounding drums of Leftfield's Phat Planet.
Directed by Jonathan Glazer for AMV BBDO and released in 1999, the ad was part of the "Good things come to those who wait" campaign, a clever way of turning the long time it takes to pour a pint of Guinness into a virtue.
In a large poll organised by British TV, the public voted it the best advert of all time. It is a classic example of an ad that never explains the product but makes it feel epic and worth the wait.
Watch the full ad on YouTube
Could you recognise it with the logo hidden? This ad is one of 129 famous commercials in Guess the Ad.
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