Goodbye, to-do list. Hi, rum and cool mist."
Nick Offerman, just off his visit to CES, returns to narrate another ad for holiday rental company HomeAway, a year after making his debut with the brand. And once again, he's preaching—this time in rhyme—the benefits of a HomeAway holiday home compared to the pitfalls of hotels and sharing-economy accommodations like Airbnb.
The new spot, from Saatchi & Saatchi London, will air in Europe and the U.S. on TV and online in 120-, 60-, 30-, 20- and 15-second versions. It was filmed in New Zealand by MJZ director Tom Kuntz, who is famous for his freewheeling spots with often oddball characters (as well as, of course, "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like" for Old Spice).
Check out the HomeAway ad below, in which unsavory characters and awkward situations doom non-HomeAway vacationers, while those who do rent through the service are immersed in a kind of holiday nirvana.
HomeAway is referencing the chaos of current events as one more reasons for vacationers to choose its service.
"The weight of all that is happening in the world, from politics to our daily routines, has everyone in search of relief. People want to get away from it all, to disconnect and spend time with loved ones," says Mariano Dima, HomeAway's chief marketing officer. "Holiday rentals are the ultimate solution because they offer the space and privacy that other accommodations just can't provide, so we created this campaign to show everyone how much better renting a whole home can be."
"We thought we'd heard all the reasons there are to get away from it all, then 2016 turned up and dealt us a whole load more," says Andy Jex, executive creative director at Saatchi London. "With HomeAway, you get the whole house, so we thought we'd go the whole hog, with an all-singing-extravaganza-ode to getting HomeAway from it all. It just felt right."
CREDITS
Client: Homeaway
Title: Get Homeaway From It All
Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi London
Executive Creative Directors: Andy Jex & Rob Potts
Creatives: Ben Robinson & Mike Whiteside
Planners: Raquel Chicourel & Kinga Papp
Account Handlers: Jon Bryars & Laura Jones
TV Producer: Josh Sanders
Media Buying Agency: Blue 449
Media Planner: James Shoreland
Production Company: MJZ
Director: Tom Kuntz
Producer: Suza Horvat, MJZ
Offline Editor: Russell Icke, Whitehouse Post
Sound Designer: Parv Thind, Wave
Audio Postproduction Company: Wave
Original Music Composition: Wake the Town
Colorist: Stefan Sonnenfeld, Company 3
DOP: Hoyte Van Hoytema
Production Designer: Jahmin Assa
Postproduction Company: Electric Theatre Collective
Postproducton Producer: Arianna Maniscalco, Electric Theatre Collective
VFX Supervisors: Luke Todd, Julien Soulage
2D Artists: Eileen Chan, Toby Aldridge, Emir Hasham, Frederick Heymans, Simon Richardson, Billy Stockwell, Christopher Fraser, Courtney Pryce
AFX: Bob Wolf
CG Artists: Perrine Renard, Baptiste Roy
Service Production Company: Smasher, Auckland NZ