Yesterday the other Cannes film festival began, the 53rd annual International Advertising Festival, a.k.a. Cannes Lions. A total of 24,862 commercials were entered in this year’s festival. According to Advertising Age’s Bob Garfield, the best of the almost 25,000 ads was one by Guinness known as NoitulovE. Happily, AdAge has the commercial posted on their site so you can watch NoitulovE. Just press play part way down Garfield’s article.
Here’s Bob Garfield’s description of the ad:
In the end, the best commercial of the year is simply much better — much better than Sony and even much better than the four-star “Big Ad.” It’s from Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO, London, for Guinness, and it is in every way a masterpiece.
Three young blokes sit at a bar sipping pints of creamy Guinness. Then the film starts going in reverse — out of the pub, onto the street, into prehistory, dinosaur life and all the way back to primordial slime. All this to Sammy Davis Jr.’s swinging rendition of “Rhythm of Life.”
“The Rhythm of Life is a powerful beat, puts a tingle in your fingers and a tingle in your feet. Rhythm in your bedroom, rhythm in the street. Yes, The Rhythm of Life is a powerful beat. …”
And so on. Eventually, the three guys are devolved all the way back to prehistoric mudskippers, just crawling out of the seas, and the familiar tagline: “Good things come to those who wait.” They sure do. Be patient long enough and you’ll find a flawless DGI production to an irresistible piece of music propelling a brilliant, astonishingly witty new iteration of a longstanding, unique positioning. This isn’t just great advertising; it is perfect advertising.
Click on the picture above to watch the commercial. It’s also available from Guinness and ‘boards.