So yesterday a bunch of we gooners were invited along to The Twelves Pins pub in Finsbury Park and also to the Emirates Stadium to take part in an advert for Guinness.
It was to be filmed as a launch for the partnership between Guinness and Arsenal.
I won’t give the plot of the advert away (a harpist is involved), but while I was hanging around in Club Level for the afternoon session, waiting to be ushered into our upper tier seats where we were expected to sing a few Arsenal chants and to be in the background of the ad, one of the producers approached me and this bloke who was sitting next to me.
“Would you two like to be IN the advert?”, he asked?
We looked at each other and me being the shy and retiring type said, “go on then, what do we need to do?”
“Not much”, he said, “you play two security guards and just have to walk past one of the lead actors. As you pass you just need to nod and walk away from the camera.”
“It’ll only take 5 minutes. Then we’ll have you back up in the stands for the chanting”.
“We might give one of you a clipboard too. One of you ok to work with props?” 🤣
“Oh and earpieces. You’ll need earpieces.”
“Sure, why not?” we said in unison. And giggled.
Two hours later - on our 18th take - we were perhaps beginning to regret our eager commitment.
We’ve been dressed up in dark blue clothing and had earpieces fitted. It was filmed down in the garage of the Emirates Stadium as the actor we were to interact with was just getting out of his car and walking towards the entrance to the pitch.
Try nodding more. Try nodding less. Try it with a high five. Try walking in step. Try walking out of step. Try talking to each other as you walk. Try saying nothing. Etc etc.
When they were happy, we put our original clothes back on and headed back to Club Level.
That was followed then by another two hours of sitting in the stands with everybody else chanting 100 different variations of “We’re the North Bank, we’re the North Bank, we’re the North Bank, Highbury” along with variations on the chant for a pub in Dublin, one in Lagos, and The Twelve Pins itself.
The whole thing was great fun. Four hours though. And not so much as a sniff of a Guinness voucher!
Next time I’ll demand a Supporting Actor rate!
The video should be out of the next couple of weeks.
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