Guinness is on a roll globally with its "Made of More" advertising. Now, for the Fourth of July, the brand has released the latest installment of the campaign in the U.S.—the lovely, quietly patriotic spot below, called "Empty Chair."
We won't spoil the plot. But leave it to an Irish brewer to make the most proudly American commercial of this Independence Day season. (An English brewer, meanwhile, has made some of the funniest Fourth of July ads this year. And where are the U.S. brewers? Mostly doing cartoonish work by comparison, it seems.)
For "Empty Chair," BBDO New York teamed up again with Biscuit Filmworks director Noam Murro, who directed last fall's brilliant "Basketball" spot. Once again the delayed reveal is deftly handled, and it's an approach that nicely embodies the tagline. The ads themselves, like the everyday heroes they celebrate, are "Made of More" than they seem at first—rewarding the viewer for sticking with them.
"Basketball" was weirdly overlooked in Cannes last month (it wasn't shortlisted in Film or Film Craft), as the judges handed five Lions to AMV BBDO's "Sapeurs" for Guinness Europe instead. But as "Empty Chair" shows, Guinness can be as proud of its U.S. marketing as anything else it's doing globally right now.
CREDITS
Client: Guinness
Spot: "Empty Chair"
Agency: BBDO New York
Chief Creative Officer, Worldwide: David Lubars
Chief Creative Officer, New York: Greg Hahn
Creative Director/Art Director: Dan Lucey
Creative Director/Art Director: Jens Waernes
Creative Director/Copywriter: Chris Beresford-Hill
Creative Director/Copywriter: Tom Kraemer
Director of Integrated Production: David Rolfe
Group Executive Producer: Amy Wertheimer
Executive Music Producer: Rani Vaz
Group Behavioral Planning Director: Gordon McLean
Group Account Director: Jim Santora
Account Manager: Hayley Devlin
Account Executive: Sara Plotkin
Production Company: Biscuit Filmworks
Director: Noam Murro
Director of Photography: Eric Schmidt
Managing Director: Shawn Lacy
Line Producer: Jay Veal
Edit House: Work Editorial
Editor: Neil Smith
Assistant Editor: Adam Witten
Sound Design: Henryboy
Music House: Human
Sound Mixer: Tom Jucarone
Telecine: CO3
Colorist: Tim Masick
Visual Effects: Absolute Post