Barbour and Sons Ltd | 'Wallace and Gromit Christmas Barbour Advert' (2025)
https://www.youtube.com/embed/X_6xpABXBM8
Meaning : Everyone needs a Barbour scarf for Christmas, even Wallace and Gromit bought it for each other. Messaging: the ad presents a version of the family Christmas cultural myth/archetype (of 'the notion of family', 'gift giving', 'considered, personal reflection', 'authenticity' etc.) centring on the Wallace and Gromit characters, which true to the expectations of their (caricatured?) characters. In doing so, the ad contrasts the 'mannered' (bumbling, eccentricity, contrivances?) behaviour of Wallace (overtly manifest through his flawed 'Gift-o-Matic' https://lbbonline.com/news/Wallace-and-Gromits-Gift-o-matic-Wraps-up-Christmas-with-Barbour device) and his 'authentic' (anthropomorphic) dog (who we know from previous episodes, has learnt to 'live with' his master's idiosyncrasies). In this way, a contrast is established between the 'mannered' Wallace + 'Gift-o-Matic' and the 'authentic' Gromit + Barbour branded product (scarf) - which seeks to imbue the Barbour scarf (and through connection/inference, the Barbour brand more generally) attributes around authenticity. For example, you could imagine a tagline for the ad going something like: Christmas is for sharing with the ones you love (underlining the Christmas cultural myth of authenticity) - forget what other people expect (criticising over-contrivance e.g. 'performing for the sake of performing') - just do what comes naturally (authenticity, which is in keeping with cultural myths around Christmas). Question: if this is the case (as above), what are the key moments in the ad where these ideas are communicated? Simon: the contraptions, which feature in Wallace and Gromit partly draw inspiration from the British illustrator Heath Robinson (who is a bit of a cultural institution https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-27813927 for his whimsical contraptions). For example, "some of the contraptions in Wallace and Gromit’s The Wrong Trousers are based on a scale model of a gadget filled house" https://theartssociety.org/events/cartoons-and-contraptions-wonderful-world-w-heath-robinson-1 There are parallels with the US illustrator Rube Goldberg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rube_Goldberg
