Our 105th Guinness ad is from the Illustrated London News, from early 1945, during World War II. It shows two navy men painting, or possibly just cleaning, an impossibly huge aircraft carrier. One turns to the other and says. “I feel like a Guinness,” to which the other replies. “I wish you were!”
Friday night Guinness‘ P.R. firm in New York invited me to the start of the Guinness Believer Tour, which debuted in San Francisco this weekend. The idea was to introduce not just regular Guinness, but also Foreign Extra Stout and their new Black Lager to consumers, who as far as I could tell, signed up for the event through social media like Facebook. The event was held at the Terra Gallery on Harrison Street and was pitched as a “multi-media experience that will take you ‘behind the gates’ of the famous St. James’s Gate Brewery.”
Guinness is much more than a beer, and when you raise a pint to your lips, you’re not just drinking it—you are part of it. We want you to be a part of history, connecting you to tradition that spans generations and a spirit that fuels celebrations today. Experience the Gravity Bar in Dublin, discover the heritage behind this famous brand and, of course, raise a pint of the black stuff to Arthur Guinness himself.
So I thought, why not? It’s been a while since I’ve done a Guinness event, in fact I think the last one was when it was still being imported by “Guinness USA,” which is pre-Diageo, I think. So I went to virtual St. James Gate.
The room was set up with different “stations,” or areas where the small crowd of no more than 100 people could meander to and from. The center featured a bar where servers were showing off the 119.5 second “perfect pour” and handing out pints of Guinness. Then there were a few food stations loaded with some very tasty nibbles.
So for the first 20-25 minutes, people sipped their pints, nibbled on nibbles, and meandered from station to station. In addition to the virtual St. James Gate, there was also “Find Your Prefect Pint” station, where you could put in an address to find nearby spots that served Guinness. There was a place to learn to do your own perfect pours from a nitrogen kegerator. There were wall sized display pieces with Guinness history and memorabilia on them, and a slideshow of old advertising lit up the wall.
For the second half of the hour, there was a presentation on a small stage. The host was comedian Dan Soder, who Guinness hired as an “Ambassador” for the tour. I had a chance to chat with him before it all began, and he was an amiable, likable guy and a big Bill Hicks fan, for which he scored bonus points as far as I’m concerned. That portion of the show was interesting. Three short films were shown on the wall, little advertising pieces with high production value showing the history of the brand and other information about the beer. In between, Soder entertained the crowd, and staff handed out small samples of both the Foreign Extra Stout (still tasting great) and the Black Lager (not bad). A comedian, and Dan in particular, seemed to work well to keep things light and moving. They also brought up a pair of volunteers to practice the perfect pour, with prizes to the winner, of course.
All in all, not a bad way to spend an hour. The Guinness was tasting very fresh, which was nice and it wasn’t too cold, which was great. I find it’s often served at a temperature that’s too chilly, but that gravity bar was a cellar temperature.
Am I a believer? Not quite yet, but it was nice to see that served properly Guinness is still a great beer. I do love the Foreign Extra Stout, and was pleased when they began importing it again. My feeling has been that Diageo has mis-managed the brand’s cache over the last decade, but this seemed like a good start toward presenting it well again.
From here, apparently the Guinness Believer Tour was headed to Los Angeles and was then traveling throughout U.S. cities. Check it out if it comes to your town.
Our 104th Guinness ad is another group portrait of many of the iconic Guinness animals and their zookeeper. Last week it was at the zoo, this week they’re at St. James Gate, the “Home of Guinness.” Which is ironic, since I was there last night — sort of. More on that later today.
Our 103rd Guinness ad is obviously a tie-in Guinness did with the Edinburgh Zoo, which makes sense since so many of the animals featured in their early advertising were zoo animals, and even often included a zookeeper, too. The animals in the first ad look more like they did in the iconic ads.
In the second, a different artist, named Price it appears, took a more cartoony approach, and while they’re the same aniumals, they don’t have the same look to them.
Our 102nd Guinness ad harkens back to a bygone era, when knights in shining armor battled fire-breathing dragons to rescue damsels in distress. When it’s really from, I have no idea. But when St. George prepares to battle the dragon in the distance, his squire first brings him pint of Guinness. “Guinness For Strength” reads the tagline and, somewhat humorously, a smaller dragon is also bringing the big dragon a pint of Guinness, too. Still, my money’s on St. George.
Our 101st Guinness ad is from 1950, and appears to be by an artist named “Victoria.” According to an auction website, it was originally “printed by Mills & Rockleys Ltd., Ipswich.” The ad features a blonde lass in a red dress playing the harp on the Guinness label, while a glass of Guinness awaits her, sitting on a table by her side.
Our 100th Guinness ad is from 1959, for their 200th anniversary, which takes place tomorrow, December 31. That’s when, in 1759, they signed the lease for St. James Gate. Since I’m almost out of vintage Guinness ads, I’ll never make it to 200, so I decided to use it for the 100th series post. The ad itself shows many of the iconic advertising characters around the new anniversary label and the ad copy “My Goodness — a 200th birthday label!”
Our 99th Guinness ad is a black and white print advertisement that ran in Life magazine in December of 1940. Showing a tuckered out store Santa Claus being torn apart by the little kiddies hoping to tell him what they want for Christmas. I’m not sure how that behavior squares with needing to be good, for goodness sale. But the ad suggests, “When you’re Tired enjoy a Guinness.” And I love their description: “Guinness looks, tastes and is different from every other malt beverage. It is dry, racy — hearty and nourishing!”
While I don’t put any stock in astrology, in 1980 Guinness put out a calendar with each month representing one of the zodiac signs, and I thought it would be fun to share these throughout the year.
Capricorn, the goat, is from December 22-January 20. To learn more, see:
Our 98th Guinness ad shows a happy and satisfied-looking can of Guinness relaxing at home in a green comfy chair. The slogan for the ad is “Guinness at Home.”
