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By Jennifer Faull | Deputy Editor

June 14, 2022 | 3 min read

We asked our readers to vote for their favorite commercials of all time. Top creatives from the World Creative Rankings and The Drum’s Judges’ Club then ranked the ads. Now, we bring you the definitive 100 best TV and video ads of all time.

‘Anticipation’ was more than just an ad, it sparked a dance craze, a nation’s love of mambo music and a high court legal drama all in a few short months.

The spot was the best – and last – in the series for the ‘No time like Guinness Time’ campaign.

It was created in 1994 by Dublin-based agency Arks, which had drafted in director Richie Smyth and freelance video editor Hugh Chaloner, whose last job had been editing U2’s Until The End Of The World video. Arks wanted it to feel more like a music video than an advert.

The film starred then-little known Irish actor Joe McKinney, who was ushered on to a set in a small coastal town south of Dublin to shoot the final spot. In it, McKinney impatiently dances around to the tune Guaglione, by Pérez Prado, as he waits for his pint to settle.

The track would go on to be a hit in Ireland (the only tune able to knock Riverdance off the top spot in the Irish music chart that year!) as well as the UK, where it reached number two.

Chaloner later told press that, while shooting, the actor was actually dancing to a completely different song, Stereo MC’s Connected.

By all accounts, pubs were packed with people recreating the loose-limbed Dubliner’s questionable moves. Can you imagine if social media had been a thing then? But perhaps the absence of TikTok was a blessing for McKinney, who became so popular he went on a two-year tour of Europe as ‘the Guinness ad guy’ before fleeing to the US where no one would recognize him.

But it wasn’t without its drama. Guinness faced (and ultimately won) a legal dispute when director Mehdi Norowzian claimed that Arks plagiarized his work in a case that ended up in the High Court and sparked calls for copyright reform.

In March 2009, Guinness re-aired ’Anticipation’ as part of a ’Classic Ads’ campaign to mark its 250th anniversary.

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