Uncommon’s Guinness work doesn’t live in the brand’s shadow

A very human observation about Guinness’ iconic glass helps Uncommon’s campaign stand amongst the brand’s fine pedigree.

There’s a hefty weight on the shoulders of creatives working with Guinness. Uncommon New York, however, ignored trends and built on the brand’s iconic tropes using an angle we’re surprised hadn’t been picked up on before.

Sam Shepherd, chief creative officer at Uncommon New York, explained in a blog that to take on Guinness’ work, the agency had to "forget all the iconic advertising revered by the industry bubble" and instead focus on the challenge facing Guinness in America.

This focus was driven by the agency's research, which revealed that Guinness held only a 0.5% brand recognition across the United States.

The resulting campaign, ’A Lovely Day’, takes its name from a classic Guinness line dating back to the brand's mid-century advertising heritage. But rather than revisiting the toucans, surfers or dreamers we all bang on about in Ad Land, Uncommon instead reimagines the phrase as a contemporary portrait of America itself.

The campaign documents real communities across all 50 states, capturing moments of shared ritual. Ice skaters on frozen lakes in Alaska, amateur baseball teams, surf groups, horse riders and running clubs all become part of a “nationwide gallery of human connection”.

Alongside the film sits a nationwide outdoor programme. Uncommon created 50 different reflections of what constitutes "a lovely day", partnering with Magnum Photography, whom they described as the "archivists of human emotion."

This collaboration underscores the team's belief that media should be "part of the narrative" rather than a separate entity from the creative process.

Our take

Like the Molston Coots campaign, also covered this week, Guinness' ad can be seen as an attempt to reunite a fading North American culture through human connection.

Thematically, the work shares the black and white leanings of Guinness classics such as ‘Surfer’, while borrowing the idea of ‘waiting’ in its ponderous run times.

In contrast to the trend of slick AI renderings, the campaign intentionally emphasises real life: a choice Shepherd describes as the "most radical" idea in the current landscape. Very ‘one theme’ for our human-centric issue this week too, of course.

At a moment when much American advertising shimmies between political anxiety and algorithm-driven fatigue, Guinness does well to focus on real communities and the malted barley bond that unites them.