Guinness - Surfer (1999, UK)

echo sin IA

Here's To You, Ahab!

fucking blowmind.

Have the signed artwork from this, prize possession

Searching for inspiration for new adverts. This is approaching 30 years old and I'm still sat with goosebumps. Truely a timless piece of art. I hope this guy was well paid!

One of my all time favourite adverts Xx

This ad bought a tear to my eye. I've seen it before but it just has that affect. It's amazing. Still don't like guinness though. Sorry.

I listen to this on my headphones at full blast before every gym session and it really does what is required. 🙌

Leftfield - phat planet in case anyone was wondering! But this was a legendary advert which I remember very well!

Leftfield......... f.....g hell yeah ❤

Was at the Leftfield concert in Sydney last night listening to Phat Planet live…. Immediately thought of this masterpiece!

“Here’s to your dream, Captain Ahab”!

Absolutely stunning. Looks better than most movies in 2026

probably the most classiest advert ever created

CREDITS:

Client - Diageo
Agency - AMV BBDO
Creative Director - David Abbott
Agency Producer - Yvonne Chalkley
Copywriter - Tom Carty
Account Executive - Gavin Thompson
Art Director - Walter Campbell
Director - Johnathan Glazer
Production - Academy Commercials
Production Design - Ben Myhill
Directors of Photography - Ivan Bird, Don King, Lee Allison
VFX Studio - The Computer Film Company
VFX Design - Dan Glass, Adrian de Wet, Paddy Eason, Tom Debenham
VFX - Gavin Toomey, Alex Payman, Joe Pavlo, Richard Clarke
VFX Supervisor - Dominic Parker
Editorial - Sam Sneade Editing
Editor - Sam Sneade
Audio Post Production - Wave Studios
Sound Design/Mix - Johnnie Burn
Music Production - Soundtree Music
Music Supervisor - Peter Raeburn
Music - "Phat Planet" by Leftfield

Don’t let anyone ever tell you that AI is even remotely necessary in filmmaking when this was made almost three decades ago without it. Handmade. Tactile. A true work of art.

Saw this advert in a cinema in Sutton as a kid..... One now has a penchant for sub bass 🎶

Here's to you ahab🍺

Just showed this advert to my children, my youngest just watched in silent awe- they really did do some great adverts back in the day Guiness ❤

Just got back from Dublin 80% of the young men that I saw were drinking Guinness.. good to see.

This advert is why I drink Guinness. Not any of the cool trends, but great adverts when I was a teenager.

can't belie5people aren't talking about the music also! I think this was the first place people heard Phat Planet and what an advertisement for the new album for Leftfield!

but agree with other comments...this is the greatest advert ever made!

Jonathan Glazer did this & went on to become one of the best film directors around.

Didn't realise Darth Sion voiced this advert.

He Waits It What He Does Ahab Says I Don't Care Who Here's To Your Dream & The Drummers Down The Pub Drummed Their Drums And Laughed at Ahab Tik Followed Tok Followed Tik Waiting for "A Crack Pipe"

The Nazgûl, also known as Ringwraiths or Black Riders, are Sauron's most fearsome servants from J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth, once powerful mortal men corrupted by nine Rings of Power, becoming invisible, wraith-like beings who spread dread and darkness, led by the Witch-king of Angmar. They are terrifying figures, inspiring paralyzing fear, riding monstrous fell beasts, and wielding dark magic, though their power grows with Sauron's strength, making them formidable adversaries.

This is also the theme song of Beast Machines, the direct sequel series of Beast Wars.

Released the year before Glazer directed Sexy Beast, following the footsteps of Ridley Scott and David Fincher.

The best advert of all time. In my opinion.

Going to see Leftfield again tonight - freakn awesome!!!

To this day I think of this whenever I have to wait for something, including my Guiness settling on the bar. But I especially think of this, and hear it in my head when waiting "strategically".

I LOVE this. I don't recall seeing it in America. However we did have an ad of a locomotive coming out if a tunnel, the billowing steam and smoke becoming the head of the pint. My mouth begins to water as i even describe it.

Absolutely insane that this is an ad for Guinness

It is the greatest television advert of all time, but also essential for timing the settle on your pint of Guinness. A bit like Vinny Jones doing CPR to "Stayin' Alive".

They need to start showing this ad again. Total mastepiece

NGL, I thought he was gonnna transform to Optimus Primal.

I wish they did smart artistic adds like this nowadays, I remember this and the Van Damme Volvo add were two I could just watch over and over.

When adds were adds and when men were men 😢

anyone here from top gear.

That was a very powerful commercial! Excellent. It deserves awards!
I am a yank (not a very proud one at the moment, and I apologize for our current Idiot in Chief), and a lover of Guinness. Maybe it's my Irish & British (& viking) bloodline, maybe it's because I was raised on it. I remember my first sip of Guinness (probably because family members kept telling the tale). I was 4 or 5, sitting on my Dad's lap "helping" him to play cards. He pulled his pint up to drink when I grabbed at it. He allowed me sip. At first, I pulled a face, then started to drink it like milk! Dad pulled it away, handing me over to an Aunt saying she's gonna fuss a bit. I was told that I fussed for no more than 5 minutes before I conked out! Mom was a bit put out with my Dad & Uncles. I didn't get another until I was the legal age of 21. I'm 65 now and have a glass of Guinness sitting next to me. Its a pub draught from a can and not as perfect as one you must wait for that comes from a pub's tap, but it will suffice. I'll say that I was really angry when I had heard that the Guinness family no longer owned Guinness, that it was sold to a multinational company. I was angry because I figured the stout would never taste the same. No one in the family will check the vats or do quality control and they'd probably build a brewery here that would cheapen the sought. Then I heard that the stout would remain being made in Dublin in the original brewery. Praise Dagda!!
I'll be looking forward to a 2025 Guinness or Boots Yule Commercial. The last Boots one starred Jenna Coleman and her bigger on the inside Boots bag. Quite clever to join Boots with her Doctor Who character even though she had left the Tardis and Capaldi's most excellent 12th Doctor.
I wish you all a goodnight.

I think it was the director of the ad and the actor that made it the best telly advert of all time.

I am just watching a Top Gear Challenge where Jezza, Richard & Jeremy learn to serf. It had this music & I suddenly remembered it as being from the Guinness ad! But only remembered the “Tick followed Tock” and I think the beautiful seahorses! Damn….those were the days!

This was actually really stupid what does horses or surfing have to do with Guinness?

Transformers Beast Machines?

This commercial made me want to pick up surfing, so I decided the best option was to start listening to Leftfield instead. Best decision of my life

The Transformers and Star Wars crossover we never knew we needed.

No one can convince me that the mid to late 90s weren't the pinnacle of mankind. The world just went downhill once the millennium came.

Sometimes I wonder what Don Draper would think watching this.