What the ad’s for/What’s the message:

The Guinness ‘Surfers’ advert is designed to arouse interest from the viewer and promote the tagline of “Good things come to those who wait” which refers to the amount of time a Guinness pint takes to prepare.

Who The target Audience is:

The advert is for mature/middle aged British men of social class C1 who make up most of their target audience in the UK, where it was aired. It’s aimed towards men who drink alcohol on a regular basis so that it can entice them into buying Guinness over other brands of alcohol.

When the advert was aired:

The advert was aired in March 1999 on Channel 4 & ITV, amongst other channels. It was aired after the watershed so that it would be shown to a more adult audience. It was designed to look like it was aired in the 60s & 70s, when surfing was more popular.

Form:

The ad is part of the ‘Good things come to those who wait’ mini-series. It’s mostly live action but makes use of animation to create the impossible scenes of white horses leaping and swimming through the waves.

Lots of this advert is based around drama and building and releasing tension, with shots containing lots of focal points and dark lighting, the shots also play for only a short time before moving to the next, making it hard for the viewer to fully take in the composition of each shot. This quick pace helps to build up the tension that's released at the end. It also uses a driving soundtrack that assists with the build-up of tension

Style/Persuasion Techniques:

It uses not one specific style but a little bit of most styles – It’s a little bit serious, quite dramatic, and a little surreal, but also has moments of humour and friendship to signal the social camaraderie of drinking in pubs with friends. A persuasion technique used is the phrase “I don’t care who you are, here’s to your dream” which backs the theme of camaraderie up.

AIDA:

AIDA stands for Attention, Interest, Desire, Action. These are the aims of advertising.

Attention – The silence at the start of the advert commands attention as the viewer wouldn’t expect such silence. Also, the surfer holding a stern expression draws attention from the viewer as well. There is no reference to the brand or product which intrigues the viewer and keeps their attention.