Guinness Dancing Man ad makes anniversary comeback

DUBLIN - The iconic Guinness 'Anticipation' ad featuring the dancing man is to make a comeback to mark 250 years of the Irish tipple.

The 'Anticipation' ad, sees Irish actor Joe McKinney dancing round a pint of Guinness as he waits for his pint to settle.

First screened in 1994 it became one of the most famous Guinness ads ever and was also responsible for the 1995 chart success of its soundtrack Perez Prado's Guaglione.

To mark the 250th birthday of the original Guinness drink the ad will be screened across Ireland and Northern Ireland next Monday (March 9) as part the Diageo-owned brand's classic ad campaigns.

Other Guinness ads to make a comeback this month include the award-winning1977 spot 'The Island', also known as 'Tá siad ag teacht'.

Grainne Wafer, senior marketing manager at Guinness, said: "Both 'The Island' and 'Anticipation' are two of our most loved and most talked about Guinness ads.

"The reaction to our classic ads campaign has been absolutely brilliant.

"We know that many people have been waiting for these ads in particular and happily, they will be aired month."

Though a huge hit with the public, 'Anticipation' became the subject of a high court battle after Mehdi Norowzian, a commercials director, claimed that the agency behind the idea had ripped off his own idea.

In 1998 he tried to persuade a High Court judge that Dublin agency Arks had based the creative on 'Joy', a short film made for his showreel.

The judge ruled against him and he later lost another fight in the Court of Appeal.

In 2000, Guinness' 'Surfer' execution, created by Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO, was named the best TV ad of all time in a UK poll conducted by The Sunday Times and Channel 4.

In 2007 the brand unveiled 'Tipping Point', its most expensive ad to date. Filmed in Argentina and costing £10m the ad showed a village of 1000 people come together to watch a massive Domino topple, including dominoes, books, tyres and fridges.

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