Guinness - Talking Lesson

A man tries to teach his toucan to remind his wife to stock up on Guinness, but finds the tables are swiftly turned.

In this witty reprisal of one of the most famous Guinness advertising gimmicks, Mr Lovell (Anthony Milner) is trying to teach his pet toucan to say “Don’t forget the Guinness”. After much repetition - which serves to embed the slogan into our own heads - the toucan delivers a cruel but fitting punchline when Mrs Lovell (Trisha Walsh) returns home. Whoever is the head of the household, Mr Lovell is clearly right at the bottom of the pecking order, but at least he has the consolation of a pint.

The toucan had been associated with Guinness since 1935, when poster designer John Gilroy was asked to devise a campaign that played up the drink’s health benefits. Gilroy’s illustrations and Dorothy L. Sayers’ copy (“If he can say as you can/‘Guinness is good for you’/How grand to be a Toucan/Just think what Toucan do.”) established a formula that lasted decades. Laurence Hutchins began working on the Guinness account when an art director at J. Walter Thompson. In addition to overseeing whimsical commercials like this, he also illustrated popular children’s books written by his wife Pat.