Guinness is celebrating a rich legacy of iconic advertising by giving much loved old favourites a contemporary twist in a new advertising campaign to mark 250 years of Guinness.

The new advertising campaign pays homage to 80 years of Guinness advertising campaigns with some of the much loved, historical Guinness advertisements making a welcome return.

The television campaign entitled "Classic Ads" uses a created device - The Guinness Advertising Time Machine, to show a series of re-runs of some of the most popular Guinness advertisements over the last 80 years. The iconic advertisements include , 1955 ‘Sea Lion', 1955 ‘Toucan', 1974 '30 seconds of Darkness', 1977 ‘The Island', winner of a Silver Lion at Cannes and a Clio in New York and 1981 ‘Big Wave'. The ads are shown through the Time Machine, which has been designed to give the ads an historical context. The end frame for each ad marks the celebration of 250 years of Guinness.

The outdoor campaign sees the return of some of Gilroy's most recognised characters, namely the Toucan, Ostrich and Pelican ‘on location' in familiar settings around the country, from Dublin to Cork, Galway and Belfast. The Toucan can be seen taking in the views of Dublin city, perched on top of the Spire on O'Connell Street, while the Ostrich decides on a contemporary mode of transport, as it catches the Luas at Stephen's Green.

Around the country, the Toucan can also be seen perched on the Galway Hooker monument in Eyre Square, flying over Patrick's Street in Cork and also over the Big Wheel in Belfast.

Grainne Wafer, Senior Marketing Manager, Guinness said, "This year we are celebrating 250 remarkable years since Arthur Guinness made the momentous decision to sign a 9,000 year lease on the famous St. James's Gate brewery. In 1959, when we were 200 years old, we launched the first ever ad campaign in Ireland so thought it appropriate to revisit our advertising history by bringing back some of the much loved historical Guinness advertisements.

The Gilroy campaign is one of the most commonly recognised campaigns in the Guinness advertising lexicon and remains some of the most evocative and potent advertising campaigns of all time, so it was only appropriate that we would re-introduce some of the old favourites to celebrate 250 remarkable years of Guinness".

The new Guinness campaign, to mark the significant milestone of 250 years, launches today with Guinness "Time Machine", featuring some of the most iconic Guinness advertisements throughout the years. The series of ads will run for three months across all channels.

The first phase of the outdoor campaign will commence on Monday 12th January followed by the second phase, which will commence on Monday 26th January.