Having disturbed millions with his Super Bowl ad showing a baby getting thrown at a window, HomeAway.com CEO Brian Sharples has issued a very long and quite conflicted semi-apology. The note is more than 1,000 words long—a whopping 14 paragraphs in all. Here's the best line: "We do not believe the ad will result in an increase in violence towards babies, just as last year's Super Bowl ad featuring Betty White didn't lead to an increase in elderly women being tackled in parks." Still, Sharples concedes that "we made a mistake in judgment, and for that all of us at HomeAway are truly sorry. We failed to understand the reality that every day some families live with the consequences of accidents, and even violence that has caused their child a brain injury." Notably, HomeAway is also now referring to the baby as a "doll," rather than a "test baby." But Sharples can't get out of his own way, pausing briefly to mention that "the traffic generated to the HomeAway website has exceeded our highly successful Super Bowl ad from 2010. But none of this matters when it comes to doing the right thing." At another point, he brings up the fact that his co-founder's son has Down syndrome—apparently suggesting that he understands suffering involving children. It's weird. After 1,000 words, Sharples seems both contrite and indignant. So, which is it? See the full message after the jump.

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