Close-Up: Live Issue - Advertising strategies go back to the future.

As brands resurrect the campaigns of yesteryear, does reliance on nostalgia expose a dearth of new ideas, Emma Barns asks.

The most popular ads are nearly always the old ones. In Channel 4's 100 Greatest Ads programme, Smash 'Martians', Levi's 'laundrette', R White's 'secret lemonade drinker' and Hamlet 'photo booth' were among the oldies that made it into the top ten.

Maybe it's not surprising, then, that clients are keen to fall back on this supposed golden age of advertising and use ideas, strategies and straplines that are regarded with such affection.

Last week, Guinness did exactly that. Its new poster campaign features the famous Guinness toucan in a style reminiscent of its ads from the 30s. And this is not the first time it has fallen back on old ideas.

The Guinness Extra Cold campaign adapted all of its old favourites, giving them a chillier feel. 'Surfers' became 'surfers' retreat', as the originally plucky group decide not to brave the freezing sea, 'fish on a bicycle' was updated to feature the fish cycling in the snow and the crazily dancing man was made into an Eskimo.

But does the fact that Guinness' agency, Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO, had to recreate these ads mean that it failed to come up with new ones that were as good?

Mark Lund, the chief executive of Delaney Lund Knox Warren & Partners, says: 'From the inside, the Extra Cold ads do feel like they have given up on anything new but, genuinely, people out there love them. The new Extra Cold property does give them a reason for being. The toucan smacks more of old ideas. I can't think that any current Guinness drinkers would remember that advertising.'