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Fish on a Bike
The Famous Guinness Fish on Bikes
Pictures and real live fish on bikes courtesy of Guinness, bless its (black and white) cotton socks.
Fishstory
I was very appreciative of the fact
that I managed to get any sort of reproduction of these pictures, as it was
probably the lasting impression they made on me several years ago that led
to fishonabike.com's existence now. We're starting to take the most amazing digital effects
for granted these days, but creating a fish on a bike that not only looks
real but moves realistically remains a pretty impressive feat (no pun
intended).
The Guinness promotion went along the lines of "A woman needs a man like a fish
needs a bicycle" in big white characters on a black background. Several images followed
which didn't exactly support the argument; then came the conclusion "not everything in black and white makes sense", which was followed by the fish cycling across the screen. In
black and white, naturally.
It says quite a lot for Guinness that they turn out ads of such high quality
that are also a tad cryptic. Then again, here am I giving them a world-wide plug. I also feel obliged to explain that Guinness is a black and
white drink - a particularly dark stout - and the draught version is very nice even as served in England (hasn't always been the case, the Irish version was miles better). The taste is smooth and strong at the same time.
I think that's my cue to take a refreshment break..
Episode II: "A Star is Spawn"
..but it doesn't end there.
A year or so after starting this site I found - with a little assistance from those kind people at Guinness Communications - that the source of the images above wasn't the TV ad, but the Guinness "A Star is Spawn" Screensaver. I did find this little beauty available for download courtesy of the Guinness Collectors Club, but sadly it's not there now.
However, the good news is that those increasingly wonderful Guinness Communications people have granted me permission to make the main moving images available on this site. Exclusively, I may add!
So here they are.
The Real McCoy. Or rather McGuinness.
- These video clips are all at least 1MB, meaning that each will take about 5 minutes to download over a standard 56kbps modem.
- They should open in a separate (mini) browser window.
- They are all © Guinness United Distillers & Vintners Limited.
- Guinness is a strong global brand name with a strong history. The company is very proud of that fact and takes copyright very seriously indeed. Please don't take copies of these clips or link to them directly from other sites without express permission from GuinnessUDV.
- If you have sound on your machine, turn it up!
Shortened version of the TV ad - including fish cycling along seafront.
Young fish cycling a trike around in his back garden, whooping with joy. Great fun.
Young fish cycling a trike around, also balancing a ball on his head.
Young fish cycling a trike around, balancing on his front fins. Impressive!
Old fish (with pipe and scarf) pedalling a penny farthing.
Old fish on a penny farthing gets newspaper blown in his face and falls off. Extremely poignant.
Old fish on a penny farthing pulls a wheelie and disappears off-screen at high speed. Cool!
Fish on a trike with cowboy hat pulls a wheelie and rides off into the sunset. Hooray!
And for the Guinness Fish, That's All Folks. But remember there are more Fish on Bike Sightings here on this site, and copious links to other recycled fishy material.