Guinness stretches a point in online back-up campaign to Hammond’s ‘Intolerant Champion’

Guinness is backing up its recent campaign featuring American music pioneer John Hammond with a number of online films from LoveLive featuring contemporary acts, talking (among other things) about how Hammond’s work bringing black artists into the mainstream helped them.

Here’s drum and bass band Rudimental, in the unlovely environs of London’s Somers Town, behind Euston station. Interesting, given the current furore, that one of them was an asylum seeker.

On the face of it there’s nothing not to like but, in truth, it’s a bit of a stretch. The UK’s airwaves were never segregated in the way America’s were in the first part of Hammond’s long career. Black artists, from Shirley Bassey and Jimi Hendrix onwards, moved pretty easily into the British mainstream 50 years ago, although there was doubtless some prejudice.

And, as it’s an online campaign, why can’t there be a glass of Guinness in there somewhere?

MAA creative scale: 5.

Here’s AMV BBDO’s ‘Intolerant Champion’ featuring Hammond.