There are beer adverts — and then there are Guinness adverts
For decades, Guinness has produced some of the most distinctive advertising ever shown on British and Irish television. Strange, cinematic, funny, sometimes surreal and frequently unforgettable, the best Guinness adverts rarely felt as though they were simply trying to sell you a pint.
They told stories.
And somehow, by the end of them, you still really wanted a Guinness.
From a man dancing around a pub while waiting for his pint to settle to surfers taking on enormous waves, Guinness has repeatedly turned one of the drink’s supposed disadvantages — the wait for the perfect pour — into part of its appeal.
Here are four of our favourite classic Guinness adverts.
1. Guinness Dancing Man — 1995
Watch: Guinness — Dancing Man
There are certain pieces of music that instantly take you back to an advert.
Pérez Prado’s Guaglione is one of them.
A man orders a Guinness and waits at the bar while his pint settles. Rather than simply standing there, he begins performing an increasingly brilliant collection of strange dance moves.
That’s essentially the whole advert.
And it is fantastic.
Known as Dancing Man — or sometimes Anticipation — the commercial originally proved successful in Ireland before appearing on UK television in 1995. It went on to win at the British Arrows and became one of the most recognisable Guinness adverts of its era.
There are no enormous sets. No epic storyline. No complicated message.
It’s one bloke, one pint and one very memorable dance.
Why it worked
The genius of Dancing Man is that the product itself creates the story.
A pint of Guinness needs time to settle. Rather than apologising for that, the advert celebrates the anticipation.
The dancing becomes a visual representation of that wait.
Even decades later, you only need a few seconds of the music or those distinctive dance moves to recognise it.
And in 2024 Guinness even revisited the idea with its Dancing Can Nitrosurge campaign — evidence of just how firmly the original had become part of Guinness advertising history.
Love Beer verdict: Simple, funny and ridiculously memorable.
2. Guinness Surfer — 1999
Watch: Guinness — Surfer
If you asked people to name the greatest Guinness advert ever made, there’s a very good chance they’d say:
Surfer.
Released in 1999 and directed by Jonathan Glazer, the black-and-white commercial follows a surfer waiting for the perfect wave.
Then it comes.
As the enormous wave crashes towards shore, white horses appear to charge through the water alongside the surfers.
It’s dramatic. Slightly surreal. Beautifully shot.
And completely unmistakable.
The idea came from one of the great pieces of advertising positioning: “Good things come to those who wait.”
AMV BBDO had taken something every Guinness drinker already understood — waiting for a pint to settle — and transformed it into a wider idea about anticipation and reward.
Why Surfer became so famous
Very few adverts genuinely feel cinematic.
Surfer does.
The black-and-white cinematography, pounding soundtrack, enormous waves and imagery of galloping horses combine to make something that feels much bigger than a beer commercial.
And its reputation isn’t something invented with hindsight.
Surfer was subsequently voted the best television advert of all time in a Channel 4 and Sunday Times poll.
More than 25 years later, advertising creatives are still discussing it as a benchmark for great British advertising.
Love Beer verdict: The masterpiece. Beer advertising rarely gets bigger than this.
3. Guinness Swimmer — 2001
Watch: Guinness — Swimmer
Next comes one of the slightly less obvious choices on our list.
The Guinness Swimmer advert from 2001 doesn’t necessarily receive the same attention today as Surfer, but it represents another period when Guinness advertising seemed determined to make a simple glass of stout feel like part of a much bigger story.
The advert is a great example of something Guinness became particularly good at: creating anticipation without constantly putting the product front and centre.
Instead, the journey matters.
The struggle matters.
The wait matters.
And then Guinness provides the payoff.
The advert survives online as the Guinness “Swimmer” commercial from 2001 and remains a brilliant bit of nostalgia for anyone who remembers that era of television advertising.
Why we picked it
There’s a confidence to old Guinness advertising that we love.
It didn’t feel the need to shout the brand name every five seconds.
Instead, Guinness trusted viewers to follow the story and wait for the conclusion.
Sound familiar?
Once again, the act of waiting becomes part of the experience.
Love Beer verdict: An underrated Guinness classic that’s well worth rediscovering.
4. Guinness noitulovE — 2005
Watch: Guinness — noitulovE
Even the name gives the game away.
Read noitulovE backwards.
Evolution.
The 2005 advert begins with three friends enjoying Guinness in a pub before taking them — and us — backwards through millions of years of evolution.
Humans regress into earlier ancestors.
Those ancestors continue changing.
Eventually we’re transported all the way back to primitive life emerging from the water.
The final creatures take a drink from a muddy pool.
Their reaction?
Not quite the satisfaction of that opening pint.
It’s completely ridiculous.
And completely brilliant.
Creative Salon describes the advert as taking three Guinness drinkers on a reverse journey through evolution back towards the dawn of time, perfectly matching Guinness’s long-running theme of waiting for something better.
Why noitulovE worked
The clever part isn’t simply showing evolution backwards.
It’s the underlying joke.
Human civilisation has apparently spent millions of years evolving until eventually achieving one of its finest accomplishments:
a proper pint of Guinness.
It’s the kind of wonderfully over-the-top proposition that only really works because Guinness already had such a distinctive advertising personality.
Love Beer verdict: Clever, ambitious and gloriously strange.
What Makes Guinness Advertising So Good?
Looking back at these adverts, there is something striking about how different they are.
One features dancing.
One features enormous waves and horses.
One centres around swimming.
Another rewinds millions of years of evolution.
Yet somehow they all feel unmistakably Guinness.
That’s clever branding.
For many years the brand built campaigns around something genuinely distinctive about the product: you have to wait for a Guinness.
When AMV BBDO took over the Guinness account in 1998, that product truth became the basis of “Good things come to those who wait” — the platform behind some of its most famous advertising.
Most brands would have seen waiting as a problem.
Guinness turned it into an asset.
Instead of:
Sorry your pint takes longer.
The message effectively became:
Anything this good is worth waiting for.
That is an extraordinary bit of marketing.
Guinness Adverts Became Part of the Culture
The other difference is ambition.
Guinness adverts weren’t simply thirty seconds of someone drinking beer and smiling at the camera.
They created characters, stories, music and images people remembered.
Dancing Man gave us those moves.
Surfer gave us the horses.
noitulovE gave us evolution in reverse.
And throughout it all, the black pint with its white head remained one of the most instantly recognisable products in the drinks industry.
Even today, Guinness and its longstanding agency partner AMV BBDO continue to draw upon that advertising heritage.
So, What Is the Best Guinness Advert Ever?
For us, it’s difficult to look past Surfer.
It’s one of those rare adverts that transcended the product it was advertising and became a genuine piece of popular culture.
But Dancing Man might be the one we’d most happily watch again.
And that’s the beauty of looking back through old Guinness commercials: everybody seems to remember a different one.
Our four favourites
- Guinness Surfer — 1999
- Guinness Dancing Man — 1995
- Guinness noitulovE — 2005
- Guinness Swimmer — 2001
But we’re sure we’ve missed someone’s favourite.
What do you think is the greatest Guinness advert ever made?
Let us know.
Fancy a Guinness After All That?
We can’t promise enormous waves, galloping horses or spontaneous dancing.
But we can help with the Guinness.
Browse Guinness at Love Beer →
Whether you’re stocking the home bar, preparing for a party or looking for drinks for your venue, explore the Guinness range available from Love Beer.
Because some things really are worth waiting for.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the famous Guinness surfing advert called?
The advert is usually known simply as Guinness Surfer. Released in 1999, it was directed by Jonathan Glazer and became one of the best-known television adverts produced for Guinness.
What was the song in the Guinness Dancing Man advert?
The Dancing Man Guinness advert used Guaglione by Pérez Prado. The combination of the music and Joe McKinney’s unusual dancing helped make the advert instantly recognisable.
When was the Guinness Surfer advert released?
Guinness Surfer was released in 1999 as part of the “Good things come to those who wait” campaign.
What does noitulovE mean?
noitulovE is simply Evolution written backwards. The 2005 Guinness advert follows evolution in reverse, beginning with modern drinkers enjoying Guinness and travelling backwards towards primitive life.
Who made the Guinness Surfer advert?
The campaign was created by AMV BBDO, with the film directed by Jonathan Glazer. AMV BBDO began its longstanding relationship with Guinness in 1998.