Barbour Christmas campaign stars Paddington Bear, with lots of heritage detail

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Nov 7, 2021

Heritage brand Barbour is linking up with a heritage character for its Christmas campaign at it collaborates for the first time with kids’ character Paddington Bear.

And the campaign film includes the original Peggy Fortnum illustration style from 1958 that has never been animated before.

To support the campaign, the brand is also launching a children’s Paddington Bear collection of soft jersey sweats and hoodies in navy, red, grey and ecru, alongside nightwear all with humorous Paddington Bear illustrations by Peggy Fortnum – “some with a Barbour twist”.

The company said the campaign is “full of nostalgia” and “celebrates the joy of giving a very special present that means so much”.

Its marketing chief Paul Wilkinson added: “Paddington Bear is a much-loved children’s character who is kind hearted and full of good intentions even if he does get into scrapes along the way. To celebrate our Re-Waxing Centenary, we have centred the story around a thoughtful gift from Paddington as he re-waxes Mr Brown’s beloved Barbour jacket for Christmas. It’s nostalgic, humorous and sentimental and shows just how much our Barbour jackets are loved and become an important part of the family; if re-waxed at least once a year, they can last a long long time.”

The behind-the-scenes team included triple Academy-Award winning production company Passion Pictures, which produced the animation in hand-painted 2D. It was directed by trio againstallodds. Every frame of the animation was hand drawn and painted with close to 3,000 hours of work since May going into the design, animation and composition of the final film.