So what do we think? Is this ad (currently to be found on Youtube) a complete fake or is it a stunt by Diageo? By claiming no knowledge of it, Guinness do benefit from the viral without having to take the consequences.
Being the cynical chap that I am, it was easy to become suspicious on first viewing and agree with comments of people "smelling a rat" : http://www.brandrepublic.com/News/MostRead/836025/Diageo-demands-sexy-fake-Guinness-viral-pulled/ but in this instance I believe Diageo when they claim righteous indignation and horror that this is out there in their name.
The repercussions that would result from an alcohol company making anything even close to an ad like that would be immense. There is significant global momentum to try to ban all alcohol marketing and advertising and the only way that spirits, wine and beer manufacturers have managed to continue to advertise in markets such as the UK/US/Europe is that they have very strict industry wide self imposed rules about how and where they can market their products. If it was found that Diageo were the source of this ad or even that they had tacitly allowed their agency to "secretly" make it then you could be sure that they would find themselves subject to increasingly draconian laws as punishment.
Frankly, Diageo are one of the most responsible advertisers in their industry and indeed lead the way in setting down the responsible marketing guidelines, so I for one cannot believe that they would have anything to do with it.
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