Mark Zuckerberg can spend billions of dollars building artificial intelligence, but it turns out that making the internet laugh might be considerably easier. The Meta chief executive has become an unlikely viral sensation after an awkward encounter with a pint of Guinness, with his rather unconvincing-looking reaction to the famous Irish stout spawning memes and sending Reddit into a frenzy. Unfortunately for Zuckerberg, the internet seems far more interested in how he drinks his beer than in what he has to say about the future of AI. For Guinness, however, the episode could hardly have gone better.
The moment unfolded during the 35th episode of Cheeky Pint, the interview show hosted by Stripe co-founder John Collison, which brings business leaders together for conversations over a drink. The 134-minute episode featured Zuckerberg alongside Alexandr Wang, Meta’s chief AI officer and head of Meta Superintelligence Labs. The pair discussed Muse Wonder, the model behind Meta’s new Muse personal agent, the company’s plans to scale computing capacity beyond five gigawatts, and the eye-watering prospect of committing more than $100 billion to capital spending before knowing whether its AI models would work. Yet it was a humble pint of stout that stole the show.
Zuckerberg had brought Collison a keg of Guinness from Dublin, explaining that it seemed like a good occasion to get the stout flowing. What followed was a masterclass in making a simple sip look unnecessarily complicated. Zuckerberg took a slow mouthful, held it for a moment, swirled the beer around like a wine connoisseur contemplating a particularly expensive vintage, and then appeared to recoil slightly before putting the glass down and pushing it away. Wang did not look particularly enthusiastic about finishing his own pint, either. But it was Zuckerberg’s expression that caught the internet’s attention, with viewers joking that he looked as though he had encountered a stout for the very first time.
The clip quickly escaped the confines of the podcast. An X user named Mark Malone posted the footage on the evening of October 12, and the original post had attracted more than 11.1 million views by the time it was checked roughly two days later. Reddit proved particularly fertile ground for the joke, with a thread on r/Sipstea attracting thousands of votes and comments. By the following morning, British humor website The Poke had published a write-up, with Irish and international outlets, including the Daily Mail, Metro, Mashable and Business Insider, soon joining the pile-on.
For Guinness, this is the sort of publicity that marketing departments dream about and rarely manage to manufacture. The distinctive black stout beneath its creamy white head is instantly recognizable in the footage, giving the brand prominent visual exposure every time the clip appears in a post, meme or news article.
According to INC, there is no indication that Guinness or its parent company, Diageo, paid for the appearance or arranged a sponsorship. By all accounts, the keg was simply Zuckerberg’s gift to Collison. The brand appears to have landed millions of dollars’ worth of potential publicity without having to lift a finger, although no independently verified advertising valuation has been published.
The timing is particularly interesting for Diageo, which has identified North America as a priority market and committed just under $1 billion to doubling Guinness production by 2029. The clip’s popularity across American social media and news outlets has given the brand additional visibility in a market it is keen to grow. Zuckerberg, meanwhile, has recently acquired a historic Irish home of his own. He and his wife, Priscilla Chan, purchased Strancally Castle in County Waterford for a recorded $56 million, adding an unexpected Irish connection to the story.
The irony is delicious. Zuckerberg’s conversation was supposed to showcase Meta’s ambitions in artificial intelligence, but the internet has instead been busy analysing his facial expressions over a bitter beer. Guinness did not need a celebrity endorsement, a carefully scripted campaign or a multimillion-dollar advertising budget. It simply needed a pint, a camera and a billionaire who looked as though he might prefer a glass of water.
