*Originally published in Japanese in AdverTimes on December 23th, 2025.
English translation by the author.
There are advertisements that move you—every time you see them.
When you hear the phrase “an advertisement that stayswith you for years,” what comes to mind?
For me, one such example is the Christmas advertisingseries created by Heathrow Airport.
It has been nine years since the first film was released in 2016, yet every holiday season someone shares it again on social media. It continues to move people across borders.
In 2025, a new film was released for the first time inseven years.
The elderly teddy bear couple, Doris and Edward, set out on another journey.
From the first film to this fourth installment, theynever utter a single word. And precisely because they do not speak, the story transcends race and nationality. Anyone can project themselves—or someone they love—into these figures.
In an era where advertising is said to have an extremely short lifespan, why does this campaign remain beloved and continue to bring people to tears nine years on? That question is worth examining.
A Christmas Homecoming Told Across Four Films
The Heathrow Bear series began as a trilogy releasedbetween 2016 and 2018. In 2025, a fourth film joined the series.
1. Coming Home for Christmas (2016)
Edward and Doris disembark the plane, pass through immigration, and collect
their luggage. The film follows their journey home for Christmas.
(Edward’s full name—Edward Bair—can actually be seen during the passport check.)
2. Fly to Someone, Not Just Somewhere (2017)
The title itself is striking. It captures the essence of travel with remarkable clarity: not going somewhere, but going to someone.
3. Making It Home Makes It Christmas (2018)
The message is direct. Christmas is not defined by a place, but by reunion.
4. Must Be Love (2025)
Seven years later, Doris and Edward return. Beginning where their journey once started, they experience a newly evolved airport and continue on to another adventure—one that feels entirely their own.
The fact that a new film was created after a seven-yeargap speaks volumes. This was never a one-off seasonal campaign. Heathrow clearly regards this teddy bear couple as a brand asset worth nurturing over time.
RelentlessFamiliarity, Deep Emotional Connection
What makes these films so compelling lies in theaccumulation of small, familiar moments.
Edward tries to take one box from a carefully stackeddisplay of Walkers shortbread—and accidentally knocks it over.
Doris waits outside the restroom.
At baggage claim, she rushes over when Edward struggles with a heavy suitcase.
These are the kinds of fleeting moments anyone who has ever traveled recognizes instantly. There is no dramatic plot. And because there isn’t, viewers naturally project themselves—or someone dear to them—onto the couple.
You know how it will end, yet you still find yourselfthinking, “Careful—don’t let it fall.”
You know they will make it home, yet you still want to cheer them on.
That depth of emotional identification is the campaign’strue strength.
Not Storytelling, but the Recreation of Experience
In recent years, the importance of “storytelling” hasbeen emphasized repeatedly. But what the Heathrow Bear films achieve is not storytelling in the conventional sense. They recreate experience.
There is no dramatic arc. No hero’s journey.
What exists instead is a meticulous reproduction of everyday moments that occur in airports all over the world.
And it is precisely this ordinariness that awakens memoryand emotion.
When Advertising Unlocks Personal Memory
I first watched these films nine years ago, and I havereturned to them every Christmas since. But two years ago, something changed.
Each viewing began to bring back a memory: Christmas nearly three decades ago, when my parents visited New York for the first time.
The reason is deeply personal. Two years ago, my parents passed away in close succession, leaving for a place from which one cannot return.
What surprised me was the alignment—how an advertisementI had loved for years suddenly became the trigger that brought those memories back with force.
Through the gentle presence of these teddy bears—theirgestures, their patience—memories I had nearly forgotten resurfaced. It felt as though a button had been pressed somewhere inside me, and tears I had been unable to shed finally came.
Crying is a form of release. A kind of emotional detox. That an advertisement could offer even that—at the end of the year, during the Christmas season—is remarkable.
Brand Value Without Selling
One of the most striking aspects of this campaign is whatit does not do.
This is not an airline commercial. It does not talk aboutfares, lounges, or comfort. What it presents instead is the airport as the stage for reunion—and the fundamental value of travel itself.
Heathrow positions itself not as a provider oftransportation, but as a place that makes reunions possible. That clarity of positioning helps explain why the campaign has not faded over time.
Advertising is often thought to exist to communicatefeatures or functions. But its deeper value lies in conveying what a product or service means in the context of life.
Through the Heathrow Bears, a highly functional space—theairport—acquires emotional depth. Watching the making-of footage reveals just how carefullythis work was crafted. That care may well be the source of the sincerity viewers feel.
What This Campaign Suggests About Future Communication
The success of the Heathrow Bears points to severalenduring principles:
1. Appeal to universal human emotions
Love, nostalgia, and the joy of reunion transcend trends and time.
2. Leave space for projection
The bears do not speak. Their identities are not specified. This abstraction allows viewers to see themselves.
3. Speak to meaning, not function
Focusing on what something means in life creates a deeper connection than highlighting superiority.
4. Craft work that invites revisiting
Attention to detail rewards repeated viewing year after year, creating lasting brand contact.
An Invitationto Somewhere Beyond “Here”
On Christmas Eve 2025, I encountered these films once again and found myself thinking: I want to travel far away. I want to land at Heathrow again—for the first time in 30 years.
Isn’t this the ideal form of advertising? Not somethingthat makes you feel sold to, but something that naturally makes you want to go, to experience, to return.
Nine years on, the Heathrow Bears continue to evoke thatimpulse in people around the world.
Long before “storytelling” became a marketing cliché, Heathrow had already grasped something more essential: advertising should not sell something—it should connect with the meaning of life as experienced by the person watching.
And that is what makes an advertisement timeless.