Guinness: Tipping Point

A chain reaction from Guinness! The latest in the series of “Good Things Come to Those Who Wait” ads, “Tipping Point” was directed by Nicolai Fuglsig of Sony Bravia “Balls” fame. Tipping Point", part of a £10million marketing campaign, is the most complex and expensive to produce Guinness advertisement ever. A celebration of community, the ad sees hundreds of villagers come together to create the ultimate domino effect, featuring 6,000 iconic black and white dominoes, alongside thousands of unexpected toppling objects.
Shot in an Argentinean mountainside village, “Tipping Point” shows an entire community who, using an array of objects, come together to create the ultimate toppling dominos spectacle. The locals hold their breath as the first domino is tipped, beginning an intricate domino cascade. The excitement mounts as the chain reaction takes hold and books begin to fall, causing cascading crates and suitcases, oil drums are overturned, fridges fall and even cars tumble over in a precision course that weaves its way though the narrow, cobble stoned streets. As the magic unfolds, eager villagers race to see the result of their efforts.
Proving “Good Things Come To Those Who Wait”, the trail successfully crescendos with book pages dramatically flipping open to create a giant pint of Guinness, complete with a pause to represent the famous two part pour. The jubilant village community celebrate the success of their endeavours with the ultimate reward – a pint of the “black stuff”.
Director Nicolai Fuglsig comments; “Shooting this was the biggest challenge of my career to date. It was a really tough job - from the remote high altitude location to having to frequently reset thousands of props, as well as working with hundreds of villagers that had absolutely no understanding of acting or film making – nothing was easy. Despite all the challenges, the cast was fantastic and it was a really amazing experience.”
Some facts on the shoot: The advert was shot on location in a remote side village called Iruya, in the Salta region of northern Argentina, with a population of around 1,000 people. The cast is made up of locals from the village and surrounding area, none of whom had ever appeared in front of a camera before. The tipping scenes were created by world record breaking domino tipping experts, Domino Domain. Setting the dominos on the table from the start of the advert took a team of three experts two days, but took just 14 seconds to topple. Toppling items included: 6,000 dominoes, 10,000 books, 400 tyres, 75 mirrors, 50 fridges, 45 wardrobes, 6 cars. 24 hours of footage was captured. And the car toppling sequence was successfully shot in just one take.