HomeAway to smush a baby for Super Bowl
In the spirit of throwing anything against the wall to see if it sticks, HomeAway.com is anchoring its upcoming 30-second Super Bowl spot around a baby that gets thrown forcefully into a glass wall, its face distorting horribly at impact and further disintegrating as it slides down the glass. Seriously, they figured this was the best way to promote vacation homes. The baby is possibly not meant to be real—HomeAway is calling it a "test baby"—although everyone else in the scene is human. (The spot, from ad agency Vendor, features a convoluted plot involving a secret government agency that runs tests on people's vacations, and has a "hotel room simulator," where the baby-tossing happens.) HomeAway CEO Brian Sharples says he's just trying to get noticed. "We used the test baby scene to create a 'Super Bowl-worthy' moment that breaks through the clutter of so many ads," he says. "While everyone loves babies and wouldn't want to see a real infant get mistakenly flung into the air, we hope viewers will get a good laugh from our test baby's unfortunate flight. The comic situation is used to highlight the fact that families, particularly those with children, could use a little extra space when traveling." To make the smushing interactive, HomeAway has also built a site where you can put your own face on the baby. Whether or not they've created a Super Bowl-worthy moment for Sunday, they're currently in the lead for the WTF moment of the night.
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