Wallace & Gromit x Barbour Give Us a Little Holiday Respite

My latest featured holiday advert just may be what the doctor ordered for the holidays …

Source: YouTube

The collaboration between Wallace & Gromit and Barbour is something that we might not have realized that we really really need right now.

About Wallace & Gromit (from YouTube):

Wallace and Gromit first arrived on our screens in Nick Park’s Academy Award®-winning “A Grand Day Out” and went on to star in three further 30-minute classics; “The Wrong Trousers”, “A Close Shave” and “A Matter of Loaf or Death” and a feature length film “The Curse of the Were-Rabbit” . Wallace and Gromit are internationally celebrated winning over 100 awards at festivals - including 3 Academy Awards® and 5 BAFTA® Awards.

About Barbour (from search):

Barbour is a 130-year-old British heritage brand built on the principle that quality outerwear should last a lifetime—crafted with intention, designed without trend-chasing, and trusted across generations. They represent durability, intentionality, and the kind of timeless design that proves a thing doesn't need to be reinvented to remain relevant.

Bring these two British heritage brands together for a holiday advert and we have magic in the making and magic to absorb …

This is the advert that we all need right now. A deep breath. A break from it all. A gift. A Christmas carol. A reminder to be human again.

Wallace & Gromit are known for stop-motion animation and quite honestly this technique feels like a luxury these days. Think about it. We're drowning in algorithmic content and TikTok cuts measured in milliseconds and social feeds designed to make us anxious.

Everything moves at light speed. Everything's optimized. Everything's designed to make us feel like we're missing something.

But are we?

Here comes Barbour and Wallace & Gromit showing up with something that gives us pause. Pauses us. Puts the pause button on.

The beauty of stop-motion is that you can feel the hands behind it. Every frame is deliberate. Every movement is considered. It’s just pure creative craft with a lot of patience along with the kind of storytelling that asks you to slow down and watch.

And that's exactly what Barbour brought to this partnership—a brand built on the same principle. Heritage. Durability. The idea that something made well lasts. Wallace & Gromit, those beloved characters from the 1990s and beyond, are the same thing: intentional, story-driven, built to endure.

In a season when we're all looking for something real, something human, something that doesn't feel like it was synthetically designed, this collaboration lands differently, perfectly.

It's not just a holiday campaign. It's a small act of resistance against the culture of speed.

And honestly it’s the campaign we need right now, even though we might not have realized it. It’s actually the kind of holiday we need right now too. A break from the news circles and cycles that drive us every day.

Take a break this holiday season. Let’s all do it.

Happy Holidays.

What’s your experience? JIM

P.S. - Gotta love the product placement with the classic scarf but of course. And the Christmas carols.