BBDO NY Celebrates Fourth of July for Guinness

BBDO New York solemnly pays tribute to servicemen in their Fourth of July spot for Guinness, entitled “Empty Chair.”

The spot, the latest U.S. installment of the brand’s “Made of More” campaign, was created in collaboration with Biscuit Filmworks and director Noam Murro. Its patriotism-stoking approach is nothing new to beer advertising, as Anomaly’s “A Hero’s Welcome” Super Bowl spot for Budweiser this year (to cite just one example) also celebrated American veterans in a somewhat cheesy fashion. How you view the ad will depend largely on your opinion of such an approach (as either a welcome homage or emotional manipulation) but the 90-second “Empty Chair” is certainly well-crafted. It opens on a bartender pouring a Guinness and leaving it at an empty table, an act she repeats many times over the course of the ad, at one point even stopping someone from taking a chair from the table. A delayed reveal at the spot’s conclusion puts everything into perspective, followed by Guinness’ “Made of More” tagline, which syncs well with the ad’s message.

It’s worth noting that between this solemn spot from Guinness and the opposite approach taken by Newcastle, the most memorable ads of the Independence Day season came from non-American brewers. Stick around for credits after the jump.

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                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Executive Producer: Colleen O’Donnell                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Head of Production: Rachel Glaub                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Production Supervisor: Jennifer Berry                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Production Designer: Bruce McCloskey