Fintan O’Toole on Guinness advertising

There was an interesting article in the Irish Times last Saturday written by Fintan O’Toole entitled “Finding the art in the advert” which gives “Anticipation” a favourable mention:

The superb 1977 Man of Aran spoof in which the islanders wait in the pub for the currach to arrive with the barrel of Guinness suggests the passage of time by sound alone – the ticking of a clock and the plash of oars – and is almost wordless (“Ta said ag teacht” and “aris” being the sum of the dialogue). So is the other great take on this theme, the 1994 Anticipation ad, with Joe McKinney performing his strange jerky dance while he waits for a pint to settle.

I’m not sure that Fintan’s Irish is up to scratch (“Tá siad ag teacht” and “arís”) but maybe recent budgetary cuts in the Irish Times have taken the fada out of the spell checker.

“Anticipation” has been shown again recently on TV as part of Guinness’ 250th anniversary celebrations, but it feels a little strange to me since the ad has had to be squished into a shorter form (than its original 60 seconds) to accommodate the front and end animation that’s part of the 250 series. Some of the cuts are a little different than they used to be, but I suppose only anoraks like me would notice that …

So INTP