A preparatory sketch for a classic TV ad, in the form of an animated storyboard.

If Guinness ads were released on DVD, then this would be the bonus feature. Few projects are analysed as much pre-production as the TV commercial. Ad agencies respond to the sponsor's brief and find production companies to realise the concept. An important stage in-between can be the animated storyboard - or animatic - which provides a cheap visualisation of the ad without the expense of actors and production crew. Or toucans.

Animatic storyboard for an advertisement for canned Guinness. A toucan sitting in a window narrates the actions of a woman getting off of a bus and returning to her front door with bags of shopping. Her husband listens as he pours a Guinness to hand to his wife who he expects to come through the front door at any moment. When she does not appear the toucan explains that it was an April Fool.