Nick Offerman Explains How HomeAway Vacations Rock in This Fun Home Rental Spot

Tom Kuntz Directs Saatchi & Saatchi Ad

Published On
Jan 10, 2017

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Nick Offerman is certainly an actor in demand by advertisers in these days. Fresh off his latest New Year's Eve appearances for Lagavulin, in which he says nothing, he now has a whole lot to say in a new commercial from home rental company HomeAway.

The spot, by Saatchi & Saatchi London, shows a family renting a fabulous house, as Offerman expounds on the benefits of taking over a whole home with HomeAway (as opposed to a hosted home -- a veiled dig at rival Airbnb). The company ran a spot on a similar theme last year.

This time, as well as portraying the downsides to shared rentals (ie. how a creepy host who wants to "hang" could ruin your vacation) it also contrasts the grimness of daily life at home -- to-do lists, office politics, and everyone glued to screens -- with the carefree life of "rum and cool mist" when you're away with loved ones. Vignettes include a woman catapulting her laptop into the distance as she decides not to answer some emails.

Filmed in New Zealand, the spot is niftily directed by MJZ's Tom Kuntz, and Offerman's deadpan tones lend it just the right ironic touch to make it perfect light-hearted fodder for sun-starved January vacation bookers. The campaign is running across Europe and the U.S.

Andy Jex, executive creative director at Saatchi & Saatchi London, said in a statement: "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. 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."