Swimblack
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Swimblack is a 1998 advertisement for Guinness-brand draught stout broadcast in the United Kingdom. It is the first in the Good things come to those who wait advertising campaign created by Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO. The centrepiece of the Swimblack campaign is a 60-second television and cinema commercial directed by Jonathan Glazer (who would later go on to direct Surfer), which depicted an aging local sports hero's annual swimming race from an offshore buoy to his brother's seafront pub against the "clock" of pint of Guinness being "correctly" poured at the bar. The aims of the campaign were to promote Guinness in general, to turn around the negative consumer opinion of the length of time required to correctly pour a pint of Guinness from the tap, usually quoted as 119.5 seconds, and to encourage bartenders to take the time to do so.
Print and billboard spots for Swimblack each tied back to the central theme of the campaign, which was successful at boosting sales, particularly among the older male demographic. The television/cinema commercial proved fairly popular with critics within the advertising and television industries, netting a number of awards - including a British Television Advertising Craft Award in the Alcoholic Beverages category. Following the success of Swimblack, permission was granted by Diageo (owners of the Guinness brand) to AMV BBDO to pursue the campaign further, and led to the creation of the 1999 piece, Surfer.
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