Halloween has nothing on this.

Eamon Dunphy, all YouTubed up on his sofa, venting bilious footie rants punctuated with the odd brick thrown out his window at Fiona McHugh or Trevor White, sounds carrying from my trouser pocket? The horror. The horror.

PROBABLY THE BEST BEER ADS. . .HOLD ON OK. This might get confusing, so bear with us.

Carlsberg, the Diageoowned beer in Ireland, has done its advertising with Owens DDB for a number of years. The creative work has been lauded. Most recently its 'Danes Hate to See it Leave' spot was a big hit at the Sharks festival in Kinsale. It also had a Mission-Impossiblethemed riff on the same vibe shot in New York, Rio de Janero and Tokyo.

Diageo confirms to Publius, however, that the work has been put out to a competitive pitch.

The shortlist includes Owens DDB and Irish International BBDO, which currently handles the Guinness account in Ireland (see below). But Publius was surprised to see two non-Irish agencies on the shortlist - Saatchi & Saatchi in London and the Amsterdam office of Widen & Kennedy.

This is not the vision of globalisation that Publius had in mind. A beer with notionally Danish provenance but actually brewed in Dundalk, pitched to Irish consumers by a Dutch or English agency?

Our head hurts.

Sources close to the pitch did note, however, that Owens DDB already has one title defence under its belt. We await word on whether it can hold onto the Carlsberg business.

THREE. . . IS THE MAGIC NUMBER Publius was a bit surprised to learn that Eircom's commercial director David McRedmond was to succeed Rick Hetherington as CEO of the now Doughty Hanson-owned TV3, as first reported in the Sunday Tribune last week. [see cutout] McRedmond gained notoriety for his, shall we say, spirited defence of Eircom's performance on unbundling the local loop and broadband takeup in Ireland with regulators, activists like Damien Mulley and the media.

But the appointment of McRedmond came as a shock to AdLanders and, it should be said, many in the media. "Why would you appoint a guy with no advertising or broadcast experience to head up a commercial broadcaster?"

asked the head of one Dublin agency in disbelief.

Former colleagues did point to his commerical experience in a range of fields.

It had been thought that the frontrunner for the job was Pat Kiely, the sales and marketing director of TV3.

Other candidates were thought to include RTE commercial director Geraldine O'Leary, former Newstalk CEO and exMcConnells man Aidan Dunne and Chris Cawley.

It could be that McRedmond simply wanted a fresh start in a different industry, unless TV3 under Doughty Hanson is developing some new digital strategy that, ironically, would see McRedmond become one of the fiercest advocates for telecoms reform, standing right next to Damien Mulley under the "Broadband Now" banner.

GUINNESS SEES RED Guinness hasn't successfully launched a new product since 1759, goes the old joke - with the significant exception of the mighty widget that makes the canned black stuff resemble the draught. So it was with considerable dread we received word that Guinness was poised to launch a red beer.

Diageo confirmed to Publius late last week that it was trialling a red Guinness in select UK pubs.

But the company said there were no plans to trial such a beer over here, where the Brewhouse series continues to roll on.

Two new spots by Irish International BBDO are on their way to screens, the first executions for the pseudo-micro-brews. We've seen 'Lost Room', a sort of Raiders of the Lost Ark vibe to it (but instead of Nazis, the guys in long black trench coats and widebrimmed black hats turn out to be master brewers) in which a labourer under St James's Gate uncovers Arthur Guinness's secret chamber containing his lost recipes. Cool. But can we taste the difference?

TIPS, BRIBES & ABUSE all welcome at rdelevan@tribune. ie