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If you’ve been pining for the pub, and more specifically for a pint of Guinness, the latest ad for the brand will give you a dose of nostalgia and a taste of future freedoms.

Set to the classic song Always on My Mind, it features the visual motif of the a pint of Guinness – black liquid topped with a head of creamy white foam – represented in several clever combinations.

Created by Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO, the ad features images including a fluffy white cat perched atop a black rain barrel, frothy waves crashing into a smoky bollard and seagulls standing on a black chimney breast.

The #LooksLikeGuinness campaign will run on national TV, along with online and video on demand, digital out of home and print. Social media support will invite Guinness lovers to submit their own lookalike pints using the hashtag #LooksLikeGuinness.

The work was created by Jack Watts and James Cambridge, and directed by Chris Balmond through Outsider. The media agency is PHD.

The latest Diageo campaign follows a £30m support pledge from Guinness to UK pub and hospitality businesses during the past year through its Raising the Bar programme. Guinness said it had helped more than 25,000 pubs to date and delivered in excess of 30,000 PPE kits across the UK. The brand also announced a £1m pledge to support bartenders when the pandemic first hit.

Before the pandemic, Guinness accounted for one in every 10 pints served in London.

Neil Shah, head of Guinness GB, said: “The past year has been tough for the hospitality industry, so we want to do all that we can to make sure that the opening week of indoor hospitality is as successful as it can be.

“We’re pleased to be able to mark this momentous occasion with the #LooksLikeGuinness campaign – the reopening of the pubs has been a long time coming but, as we say at Guinness, ‘Good things come to those who wait’.”