My Goodness, Guinness…It’s a Kangaroo!

For much of the 20th century, Irish brewery Guinness used kangaroos for its advertising.

There was apparently no particular reason that advertiser John Gilroy selected kangaroos for a famous series of ads featuring exotic animals that the brewer used from the 1920s through to the 1960s and still common today.

The kangaroos in the ads were notorious for sneaking away a pint of stout in their pouches.

In addition to posters, the kangaroos featured in early TV ads, adorned coasters and were used for Carlton Ware figurines and even a salt-and-pepper shaker.

The advertisements ran under such copy as “Guinness is Good For You,” “My Goodness, My Guinness” and “Ask for a Baby Guinness.”

Guinness even ran a competition to name a joey born at Adelaide Zoo.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Archive Fact Sheet: Gilroy and Animals
How the Guinness Toucan Became the Brewery’s Most Iconic Mascot