The 1974 A Fistful of Guinness Advertising campaign

The 1974 Guinness Advertising Campaign 

I thought I’d post this short piece as I noticed lately that a few reproductions, or retro styled metal signs have been turning up on auction sites. The key word of course is reproduction. The original campaign was launched by the brewers in 1974 and designed to tie-in with the dollar film. It’s strange how late this appeared considering the film was running around 1967. 

Nevertheless, the ad was obviously designed as if it was a film poster (of sorts) and clearly an Eastwood likeness image was used to try and maximise the impact. Strangely enough it looks as if various different elements have been used to create the image. The shirt looks way out of place and resembles something close to what Clint was wearing in Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, while the hat with the distinct threaded leather lace looks more like the hat worn in Two Mules for Sister Sara. 

Naturally, Guinness no doubt had to handle this rather carefully, probably to avoid any copyright infringements. However, this wasn’t the case with the tie-in campaign and the James Bond film The Man with the Golden Gun, also from 1974. This design took the full quad design poster and exploited it officially with the Guinness brand up front and centre and fully in your face! 

While the reproduction metal signs can be picked up relatively cheaply, you can expect to pay a great deal more for the original 1974 posters, which do pop up occasionally as there is a healthy interest in Guinness brewery memorabilia. 

Below: The retro style reproduction metal signs