Aardman Brought a “Hint of Mischief and Anarchy” to Baa-bour’s Christmas Spot
As another Christmas season rolls around, so too comes a new brilliantly animated Barbour holiday spot. This year, the brand has ventured into the chaotic Mossy Bottom Farm to show us how the Flock tried to fix up the Farmer’s worn in Barbour jacket.
The messaging behind the campaign is clear - people might not be too financially comfortable with their gifts this year, so Barbour is reminding them that buying new isn’t always necessary in order to show love and care. The heritage brand has been offering a re-waxing and repairs service for over 100 years and now is the perfect time to remind customers that mending somebody’s Barbour garment could be the ideal gift.
Aardman’s IP worked flawlessly to convey the message - Shaun the Sheep is a quintessential character in British culture and the Mossy Bottom setting makes for a cosy film in which we see The Flock try to mend the Farmer’s jacket using wax, bad stitching, and odd textiles.
LBB’s Zoe Antonov spoke to Aardman director Steve Harding-Hill about creating the spot and how Mossy Bottom’s irreverent humour became the perfect fit for Barbours laid-back messaging.
LBB> What was the brief for this campaign and what were the initial ideas around it? Did you know Barbour would come to the Mossy Bottom Farm from the start or did that develop as an idea later on?
Steve> The brief was quite broad. Barbour wanted to create a message about thoughtful gifting, but didn’t want to pressure people into buying new for Christmas, due to the cost-of-living crisis. Barbour offers a repair and re-wax service on their jackets and they wanted to highlight this. Shaun the Sheep as an Aardman IP was identified quite early on as being a good fit for the campaign. It’s fun and silly and has a strong sense of family values, which seemed like a good fit for Christmas. It just so happens that in the series the Farmer wears a ‘Barbour-ish’ looking coat and that really was the seed of the original idea. After that, the brief was quite open, and we had full rein to come up with a script that we felt echoed Barbour’s values - as well staying true to the fun spirit of Shaun the Sheep.
LBB> How involved were Barbour in the creative development of the campaign?
Steve> After the briefing call with Barbour, we set about brainstorming various ideas back at Aardman, involving key creatives who knew the Shaun world well. These ideas were all based around the starting point that the Farmer had been clumsy around the farm and in the process had ruined his jacket. The question was then, how would Bitzer (his faithful dog) and the Flock respond? Obviously, they’d want to help the Farmer, but we all felt that it was more fun if the sheep did a terrible job mending the coat - even if they thought they’d done it brilliantly. They are a Flock with good intentions, and they set about earnestly fixing the coat, but ultimately end up doing a really rubbish job and ruining his jacket. We all thought that that was where the comedy and fun lay in the idea and that’s where the ‘you could mend it yourself OR just could ask Barbour’ idea came up. We then pitched this to Barbour and they were really up for it and wanted to truly embrace this message and the comedy that came with it.
LBB> And why were they the perfect partner for such a campaign - what kind of values do you see an alignment with between each other?
Steve> We really liked the sustainability/’make do and mend’ message and the fact that Barbour offered a mending and re-waxing service. Also, Barbour is a premium British brand with a link to the country, so it felt like a really comfortable fit for us at Aardman and the Shaun the Sheep brand.
LBB> Why did you pick Shaun, Bitzer and the Flock as the best group of characters to embark on the fashion journey of fixing up the Farmer's coat?
Steve> Well, they’re the stars of the show and as they’re like a big dysfunctional family. We thought that that’s very relatable and would make for chaos and fun!
LBB> How did you achieve the balance between showcasing these iconic characters, while still mixing their lore with that of the brand and not letting it fade in the background?
Steve> Luckily the Barbour coat is central to the story throughout the film – it’s pretty much in every shot in its various stages of disrepair and eventually repair. The balance was about getting that amount of story into such a short space of time, with clear messaging and plenty of humour as well. Comedy and gags take time, as well as perfect pacing, so it’s always a juggling act.
LBB> And above all, how did you manage to infuse that mixture with the Christmas spirit? What details were crucial for this?
Steve> I think all the obvious things like snow, decorations, fairy lights and Christmassy music really help, however the central idea of caring about someone (the Farmer) and the sheep wanting to help him, however naïve they are is why the film works and ultimately makes it feel warm and Christmassy. Then of course throwing in some good irreverent gags helps us not to take things too seriously.
LBB> Tell me about how the tagline influenced the creative decision-making on the film?
Steve> The tagline changed before we started filming. Originally it was more direct and to the point, but Barbour felt it was a little bit too overconfident sounding, so we softened the messaging. We also persuaded Barbour to use a voice over to really emphasise the tagline line. Previously they’d avoided using VOs, so we were very happy when they came round to the idea. We used the voice actor Antony Howell, as we felt he had a lovely warm tone to his voice that sounded down to earth and relatable.
LBB> Talk to me more about the animation itself - the DIY fixed jacket looked really chic. How was that design decided upon?
Steve> Well, we all joked that the DIY fixed coat (that the sheep came up with) looked like some crazy rave clothing from the ‘90s! That was not our inspiration, honestly – we just knew that if the sheep used all the wrong thread AND all the wrong materials, they would somehow end up creating a really colourful, almost technicolour, Frankenstein-looking outfit. We wanted it to look really awful, however we also wanted it to look like a lovely object in itself – despite being badly made, burnt and covered in candle wax.
LBB> And overall, how did you make sure you animated the Barbour pieces in a way that stays true to life and recognisable to audiences?
Steve> We created the Barbour coat in miniature, which is always a challenge, as you are bound by the scale of the materials you are working with. After that, the challenge was that we had to make about ten different coats in various stages of repair - as we needed different animators to animate scenes at the same time. For this, we created one master coat and a mould of that was taken where we then created eight versions of that same coat in latex. These different coats were then decorated with patches of crazy material and stitching in their various stages. In contrast, we were keen that the final beautiful, repaired Barbour coat looked neat and fashionable, so we spent a lot of time getting it looking perfect. Our model makers did an amazing job creating so many versions in such a short amount of time.
LBB> What was the most challenging part of the project, and similarly what was the most fun?
Steve> It was a big story to tell in a short amount of time, so the challenge is always how do we make it all fit. After that, an internal voice in my head always asks, ‘But is it funny?’. To help I acted out (and videoed) a lot of the Farmer’s reactions at the end and we used that reference to really try and land his performance in a bid to nail the comedy. It’s hideous having to watch yourself act something out but, my goodness, is it worth it when you do. The animators then take this as a starting point and elevate it in the shot. It’s a bit like alchemy.
The most fun aspect of the job was getting to work with such a lovely fabulously talented crew. It’s hard work but we all pull together and have a great laugh. It should always be fun!
LBB> Any final thoughts?
Steve> I’ve worked on quite a few Christmas ads, and I think the best, most memorable ones are the ones that aren’t overly sentimental and have a hint of mischief and anarchy in them. This is certainly one of those ads and I’d like to thank Barbour for trusting us and letting us run with that!
