Chain (advertisement)

Chain is a 1994 British television advertisement for the Irish stout brand Guinness, created by the agency Ogilvy & Mather. It depicts a surreal journey into a pint glass of the beer, which through a blend of live action and computer animation, is achieved by stylising the drink's bubbles as swirling galaxies containing planets. The camera zooms through the stratosphere of a planet through a room within a large tower, finally arriving at a pint of Guinness identical to the opening of the advert. The journey then repeats before bearing the slogan "Pure Genius".

Directed by Doug Foster, Chain was the last of over 20 advertisements in "The Man with the Guinness" campaign that had run since 1987. The campaign's star, actor Rutger Hauer, appears briefly on a flickering black-and-white television within the tower room, alongside items relating to prior Guinness campaigns and iconography. The company Blink oversaw the commercial's production, which utilised computer-controlled cameras and motion control technology.

Premiered in June 1994, Chain was well-received and later won a D&AD Pencil Award. The soundtrack music, Louis Armstrong's 1969 song "We Have All the Time in the World", was re-released as a single and peaked at number three on the UK Singles Chart. Two alternate versions of Chain, featuring heavy guitar music, were run late at night to bookend advert breaks at forwards and backwards speeds. Another edit displayed Guinness' web address, then uncommon practice.