Can anyone shine light on missing Guinness advert from late 70's/ early 80's

nitsujj

Hi there,

maybe somebody out there can help me out there find a guinness advert that is from the early eighties (i think). it was shot in colour and depicted a summer beach setting with a surfer riding the waves and then foam from the waves representing a pint of guinness settling. the advert was originally shot for film advertisement screening but i remember it was shown late at night for tv advertisement screening in the 80's. i have looked everywhere at at this stage i think that maybe i'm the only person who remembers this remarkable ad. It is not listed anywhere on website (including guinness site) and this is not the 1999 advert entited surfer - this dates 20 years before!!!

can anybody help??

nitsujj

gipi

Here ya go....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIrXQGzu3tU

It's called "Big Wave", was used in cinemas as you said, and was the inspiration for the 1999 "Surfer" advertisement.

Ann22

I've been looking for this ad too. I loved the saxaphone music.

gipi

There's a bit about the music in the comments below the video, Ann.

(I don't normally read the comments on utube myself!!)

nitsujj

cool, thank gipi

yosser hughes

nitsujj wrote: »

Hi there,

i have looked everywhere at at this stage i think that maybe i'm the only person who remembers this remarkable ad.

nitsujj

How hard did you look? Most people over thirty would remember that ad.I found it in less than a minute.Seriously,how hard did you look?

nitsujj

very hard! no matter where i looked i kept getting the 1999 version of the surfer advert! are you sure were talking about the same advert as you would have to be at least 35 to remember it? guess i'm not the investigate type!

stovelid

Pity you can't hear the original music

Another poster - aidan dunne? - posted an ad break on here ages ago with that ad tucked away in it somewhere. It had the music and everything.

Edit: woohoo! The music is even cheesier than I remembered. I think I remember it being from around 1981 as I was a kid and we'd just moved to Ireland at the time and I remember the girl in the bikini the music.

r3nu4l

stovelid wrote: »

I was a kid and we'd just moved to Ireland at the time and I remember the girl in the bikini the music.

Yeah I loved the 'music' too as a kid
Great ad!

WindSock

I remember that ad too vaguely, it must have had a re-run after 1981, or else I have an amazing baby memory
I thought at the end of the ad, there was a black towel on white skin that resembeled the pint. May have been from another one though.

Was this the ad that Christy Moore referred to in Delirium Tremens?

As I sat looking up at the Guinness ad I could never figure out
How yer man stayed up on the surfboard after 14 pints of stout

stovelid

Karsini wrote: »

Was this the ad that Christy Moore referred to in Delirium Tremens?

As I sat looking up at the Guinness ad I could never figure out
How yer man stayed up on the surfboard after 14 pints of stout

In the thread I linked to, I think Aidan Dunne said it was about that ad...

@ Windsock. Maybe it was later. I seem to associate with that time for some reason but not 100% sure.

WindSock

WindSock wrote: »

I remember that ad too vaguely, it must have had a re-run after 1981, or else I have an amazing baby memory
I thought at the end of the ad, there was a black towel on white skin that resembeled the pint. May have been from another one though.

The link stovelid posted is from the summer of '88. I was able to verify the year by the "Summer on Ulster Television" card at the beginning - it's shown on some presentation websites as 1988.

So yep, I'd say it was a re-run you remembered.

stovelid

I seem to vaguely remember a Guinness ad from late 70s/early 80s with Pearl's a Singer by Elkie Brooks? And one with the Chieftains(?) in it.

Maybe I'm off on those ones too.

Thomas828

I remember that ad well. It was always on UTV. I loved the saxophone and guitar solos.

Bearhunter

stovelid wrote: »

I seem to vaguely remember a Guinness ad from late 70s/early 80s with Pearl's a Singer by Elkie Brooks? And one with the Chieftains(?) in it.

Maybe I'm off on those ones too.

Oddly enough the Chieftains one also emerged in a Christy Moore song:

"Before the Chieftains could start to play
Seven creamy pints came out on a tray..."

- Lisdoonvarna

luap_42

Try here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CB6gUdOoVic&feature=related It was on TV in the late 70's. It got me hooked on surfing back then as did the Old Spice ad. It was re-released into cinemas between 1981 and 1983. From a Guinness rep: The ad which you refer is called 'Big Wave' and was aired in Ireland from 1981 - 1983. The ad was produced by the advertising agency ARKS. The music was specially commissioned by from Bill Whelan - who later composed Riverdance. The saxophonist was Rafe Ravenscroft who did the sax playing for Gerry Rafferty (ala Baker Street). I presume the name of the track was Big Wave also, but since it was never released, there's no chance of getting that, best you can do is extract the music from the youtube video above.

darkdubh

It ran for well into the 80's.I remember seeing it as a teenager in the late 80's and thinking it looked and sounded very 70's at the time.

Ann22

luap_42 wrote: »

Try here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CB6gUdOoVic&feature=related It was on TV in the late 70's. It got me hooked on surfing back then as did the Old Spice ad. It was re-released into cinemas between 1981 and 1983. From a Guinness rep: The ad which you refer is called 'Big Wave' and was aired in Ireland from 1981 - 1983. The ad was produced by the advertising agency ARKS. The music was specially commissioned by from Bill Whelan - who later composed Riverdance. The saxophonist was Rafe Ravenscroft who did the sax playing for Gerry Rafferty (ala Baker Street). I presume the name of the track was Big Wave also, but since it was never released, there's no chance of getting that, best you can do is extract the music from the youtube video above.

Thanks, thanks thanks:) What a treat to see it again.

luap_42

Now if someone can only dig out a copy of the later shorter version of this ad. It was very similar, but not exactly the same. Better quality, edited slightly differently and shorter, and crucially, different surf location. The version below uses Pipeline and backdoor from the north shore of Oahu, whereas the later version used some Waimea (big wave also at north shore, Oahu). Also the waves changed colour from a sunset reflection to a brown curl, which then had the wave become Guinness flowing around a pint glass being pulled with surfer disappearing, then it merged back again into a wave and a surfer re-appeared on the liquid again. The music was from the same track, but the narration was also different, possibly by the same narrator Tony Allan, I think he finished the ad with 'No beer, comes near...' It was also a much shorter ad, which really disappointed me at the time, I could've watched it for hours... If I remember correctly it was about 40 seconds long (I was so into this ad, I actually timed it), whereas this one is close to two minutes. The later version was designed for the TV advert slots at that time and without the 'dodgy' bikini shots for Irish TV at that time. I'm half thinking of contacting ARKS advertising to see will they give me copies of these ads.

stovelid

luap_42 wrote: »

Try here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CB6gUdOoVic&feature=related It was on TV in the late 70's. It got me hooked on surfing back then as did the Old Spice ad. It was re-released into cinemas between 1981 and 1983. From a Guinness rep: The ad which you refer is called 'Big Wave' and was aired in Ireland from 1981 - 1983. The ad was produced by the advertising agency ARKS. The music was specially commissioned by from Bill Whelan - who later composed Riverdance. The saxophonist was Rafe Ravenscroft who did the sax playing for Gerry Rafferty (ala Baker Street). I presume the name of the track was Big Wave also, but since it was never released, there's no chance of getting that, best you can do is extract the music from the youtube video above.

So it was 1981!

:pac:

Amalgam

Was it 'purely' skilled guitar playing, or..

I had a friend that was obsessed by the idea a talk box was used somewhere in the sound.

Not the 'talking guitar' trick, but more of the simpler wah wah sound shaping.

An attempt was made to make one at the time, involving a piece of perspex and plenty of sellophane and sellotape.. the resulting contraption induced retching in the guitar player.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk_box

This YouTube user goes through several styles of Talk Box playing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=An9_LG3Mc08

I'm only familiar with the short version of the ad, delighted to see the long version.

Degsy

Anybody remember the "30 seconds of darkness" Guinness ad?

Was a piano solo played over complete blackness which later transpired to be apint of guinness clearing.

Loved it back in the 70's.

edit

here it is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=882_58HfuAw