Guinness Makes A Serious Counting Mistake In Its St. Patrick’s Day Ad

The shamrock, St. Patrick’s day, and Guinness are all major Irish cultural icons. The shamrock is the symbol of Ireland, while Saint Patrick’s day celebrates the island’s patron saint, and Guinness is an Irish dry stout first brewed in Dublin and still remains to this day the most beloved and widely consumed beer in Ireland.

So, it seemed strange that the beer company with strong Irish roots and which probably makes its biggest sales every year on St. Patrick’s day, would make a mistake in depicting the shamrock.

The shamrock became a symbol of Ireland because of its association with Saint Patrick. According to legend, the holy man was said to have used the three leaf clover to explain the Holy Trinity to Irish pagans.

Thankfully, though, that mistake was not made in the Irish homeland but across the ocean in Canada — Toronto, in fact. Sharp-eyed commuter Aidan Ryan noticed an advertisement which was put up by Guinness Canada for the upcoming celebration of Saint Patrick’s day on March 17 in the city.

It was almost all well and good; the poster had a green background and showed the Canadian maple leaf with the Irish shamrock beside it. The only problem is, the symbol depicted a four-leafed clover, which is wrong — it is supposed to be a three-leafed shamrock! To add another bit of irony, the poster was placed in Toronto’s Saint Patrick’s station.

Aidan Ryan posted the image on Twitter:

@jesseferreras This is the photo I originally took that sparked all this 🙂 cheers pic.twitter.com/k0ymDDcswl

— Aidan Ryan (@AidanRyan555) March 11, 2016

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It immediately sparked a backlash, especially amongst Toronto’s Irish community.

@GuinnessCanada Should be a shamrock not a clover. #KnowTheOneThatsOneTooMany #DrinkResponsibly #HappyPaddysDay pic.twitter.com/i7XbDQ2fbl

— Mark Gray (@GrayzaMGG) March 9, 2016

I thought if anyone would be able to get a shamrock right it would be @guinnesscanada. I guess not pic.twitter.com/7B0CeF4bqi

— Judith Gannon (@tenhours0) March 9, 2016

Toronto resident and Irishman Gareth O’Connell then chose to directly message Guinness in Facebook to inform them of their mistake. They responded to him and also the others whose private messages followed his. Aidan Ryan reposted the response in his twitter account:

@GrayzaMGG @jesseferreras pic.twitter.com/JUUfnz8jy7

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— Aidan Ryan (@AidanRyan555) March 11, 2016

The company admitted their mistake and apologized for it; they also made assurances that the posters will be removed — which they did immediately.