Guinness Toucan Sunrays T-shirt
by Tom Warin
(Salem, MA)
Guinness Toucan Sunrays T-shirt(Tees For All)
Just one of the many items in our Guinness Store
Toucans are a family of birds, at least 20,000 years old, that are native to central and south America. They mostly eat fruit and are well known for their large and brightly colored bills that the Aztecs believed to have been made from rainbows.
Guinness beer is a dry Irish stout, brewed in Dublin since 1759. Ireland is not in central or south America. Guinness is known for its rich creamy head and has no bill at all, colorful or otherwise. As far as we know, the Aztecs never expressed an opinion on Guinness, although if they had, it probably would have been that it would be better with chocolate.
How did these two disparate things become entwined in public consciousness? Where did the toucan's mythical love of Guinness come from? Originally the whole thing was simply the fever dream of an overworked artist, John Gilroy, employed by an advertising agency to sell Guinness. He tried pairing Guinness with kangaroos, ostriches, seals and lions, but only the toucan stuck. Nobody knew why.
Researchers at the Institute of Toucanography recently figured out that it's because the toucan's bill can be used to pry the cap off a bottle of beer. It's all rather disappointingly mundane, really. If that explanation leaves you in need of being cheered up, this rather jolly mustard yellow Guinness Toucan Sunrays T-shirt from TeesForAll should do the trick.
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