Arthur’s Day made sense two years ago, to mark the 250th anniversary of an institution. Now, I’m not quite buying it. If anything should be celebrated it is the rise of small Irish breweries, as opposed to Diageo’s stranglehold over the Irish market.
Read this history of Dublin breweries historically and weep.
A city that was once host to over 30 breweries was now reduced to one. Guinness was so dominant in Ireland, that when it started its first advertising campaign in England in 1929 it felt it was a complete waste of money to spend anything in Ireland. Consumers either drank its beer or gave up drinking. According to the “History of Guinness Advertising” it spent an average of £10,000 per year on marketing in Ireland between 1929 and 1959. Part of the Guinness strategy was whenever a small brewery closed or was bought out by it, its sales representatives were sent out to buy up all the memorabilia/posters etc. from the pubs that were previously supplied by that brewery. In that way it could remove the history of that company from the popular imagination.
Click on the book for more.
Click on the book for more.
Donal
Ciarán
Sam
Come Here To Me! 
Sounds right to me. Diageo may well overplay their hand here.
250th was fun. Annual is purely commercial.
I had no idea bout the history of Guinness advertising but this is a realy good point. I was recently in Ireland for three weeks and I saw those Arthur’s Day commercials more than any others. In addition to this, durring visits to Dublin one hears constantly about the Guinness tour. Just about everyone who visits seems to take this tour! I thought it must be great so I went and, for the most part, it seemed to just be just another long commercial. I was disappointed and, when I ran into other visitors, I always tried to convince them to spend their time at Kilmainham Gaol if they want to go on a tour.
Completely agree. Such is their stranglehold on the market and pubs that it’s almost impossible to get a pint of Murphys, Beamish or similar anywhere. Guinness have too much of a monopoly.
Spot on. It’s amazing how many gobaloons get drawn into an advertising campaign as willing dupes who support it by spending their own money. Diageo is a British multi national. Years ago the Guinness tour took in the actual brewery. The pint of Guinness sold in pubs now bears little resemblance to what was drank before Diageo took over.
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It saddens me how many people still get pulled into the annual Diageo day hype.
2 years ago in London, I walked past a bar with a group of Irish lads drinking outside wearing irish football tops. I asked them who was playing and they said it was “Arthurs Day”…………….any excuse!
Not only does Beamish taste better, it is also 50c cheaper than Guinness. Im going to boycott Guinness where possible, but it is a hard job in the UK…
http://diageoday.blogspot.ie/
Agree the Arthur’s Day thing is cringeworthy in the extreme. And I applaud the breaking of the beer monopoly by the craft brewers of Ireland.
But still one of my main pleasures in life is to land again on Irish soil and to settle down with a pint or two of the black stuff. I’m reminded how good it invariably is in Ireland every time I get a travesty of a pint sloshed in front of me elsewhere. I can’t remember ever having had a less than perfect pint in Dublin. Though in Cork I’ll stick to the Murphy’s out of loyalty.
And the Guinness advertising over many years has been legendary and Arthur’s Day is an affront to its legacy.
Credit where it’s due, long may a great pint of the black stuff be poured.
Wow buying up all the memorabilia sounds almost Orwellian in removing history.
Interesting one. Does anyone have any info on the Joseph Watkins brewery on Ardee Street? I live near there, and there is a Watkins Square, which I believe was built as brewery housing in about 1900 (mentioned in the 1911 census)