There have been some epic television commercials for Guinness.

This probably isn’t one of them.

Take a look for yourself.

Not that any expense was spared.

Conceived and developed at AMV BBDO London by creative Paul Brazier, and agency producer Yvonne Chalkley, this latest commercial ["World"] was shot on location in Canada, New Zealand, Fiji and the UK.

The Independent lapses into rather poetic retelling of the story behind the scenes:

This is the story of the making of the most anticipated advertising campaign of the year. It involved a trip to the other side of the earth and a brief to simulate the creation of the world. In a 90-second film.

And so it came to pass that the Manchester-born director Johnny Green, having taken on the greatest challenge of his career, found himself in a New Zealand field facing disaster. Green had been commissioned by Guinness, the client with the greatest creative advertising legacy of them all, to make the campaign intended to reposition the world-famous brand and change the habits of millions of drinkers.

In the back of his mind was some of the greatest advertising of all time: the horses emerging from the waves in Jonathan Glazer’s 1999 Surfer, Frank Budgen’s epic Snail Race from 2000, Danny Kleinman’s Cannes Grand Prix-winning story of the evolution of the Guinness drinker, Noitulove from 2006, and Nicolai Fuglsig’s Tipping Point, showing dominoes, fridges and cars toppling through a South American village, two years ago. “I know it all inside out,” says Green of this back catalogue. “But you can’t get too involved because you get intimidated if you start thinking ‘I’ve got to live up to all those guys’.”

The other commercials all featured the famous endline “Good things come to those who wait”. Green was tasked with ushering in a brand new era of Guinness drinking, built around a fresh line: “Bring it to life”.

His big scene was to feature a vast, lush carpet of green turf, which would be dragged into place by his planet-building group of untrained actors. Except, in growing his turf he hadn’t bargained for the New Zealand weather. “It rained so heavily the grass ended up disintegrating,” he says. His response was to assemble a team of 45 local New Zealand women and set up a small factory where, over six days, they stitched together an artificial lawn. Last Wednesday, during coverage of the Champions League, millions of viewers saw this green tapestry being lugged over rocks and through the rain by a man whose day job is as a New Zealand fireman.

The Inspiration Room blog, meanwhile. points us at a “Making Of” video clip:

So does it work? The Independent reports on industry reaction so far, channelling the Brand Republic website:

The reaction in the advertising community is mixed. “This is like being served a Guinness by an Aussie barmaid just off the plane; it’s flat and lifeless,” was one comment on the Brand Republic website. “I think this is epic. Guinness is a big powerful drink that really does come to life before your eyes,” was a more positive response on Creative Review’s site. “It’s beautiful cinematography but the message is lost,” said another.

THE BRIEF

So how did this all come about?

Back to The Independent and some words from the client:

The story of how Guinness chose the “Bring it to life” endline stretches back two years and involves exhaustive research of the target audience. Paul Cornell, marketing manager for Guinness, says: “What has become clear is that a lot of our volume is coming from the guys who love the brand, love the product and drink us on many occasions.” But the more occasional Guinness consumers had become convinced it was only a drink for special moments, while watching a rugby match, say, or on St Patrick’s Day.

Which somehow led to:

Anxious to widen the appeal of his product, Cornell analysed previous Guinness advertising work and decided three elements were crucial to success: epic production, a positive resolution and a shared experience.

And from there, for no obvious reason, to:

After countless hours of thought, Brazier finally came up with the new endline on a taxi journey to the Guinness office for a crucial meeting. “I don’t know if it’s nervous energy but creativity comes out of that last-minute panic. I was in the cab going down there, and I just interrupted the conversation and said, ‘I know – it’s ‘Bring it to life’!” He snatched a pencil to scrawl down the line and presented it to the client on a Post-it note. From there, the team went through around 60 storyboards to get to the finished version.

Which is all very well. But, with all due respect, may we point out that if one pauses the commercial just before the end frame, there is absolutely NO connection with the product. And, for that matter, there’s no connection between “Bring it to life” and Guinness either. Perhaps Mr Brazier should have told the cabbie to keep driving aroung the block a few more times.

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