HomeAway To Bring Back the Griswolds in New Ad Campaign

Chevy Chase and Beverly D’Angelo to Reprise Roles as Clark and Ellen Griswold from ‘National Lampoon’s Vacation’ in Ad Campaign Designed to Promote the Benefits of Vacation Rentals

AUSTIN, TEXAS, November 19, 2009 – HomeAway, Inc. – the world’s leading online vacation rental marketplace – today announced it will reunite actors Chevy Chase and Beverly D’Angelo in its new national advertising campaign that will recapture the spirit of the 1980s comedy classic, “National Lampoon’s Vacation.” The new HomeAway® ad campaign will debut during the CBS television network broadcast of Super Bowl XLIV on Feb. 7, 2010.

“The Griswolds have always been America’s first family of travel, and the broad popularity of the Vacation movie series still continues today,” says Brian Sharples, founder and chief executive officer of HomeAway. “We intend to have a lot of fun with the ad campaign, highlighting the travel mishaps that always seem to follow the Griswold family, while also promoting the value and benefits of vacation rentals as an alternative to hotels.”

Chevy Chase and Beverly D’Angelo portrayed Clark (“Sparky”) and Ellen Griswold in the popular film, which was written by John Hughes and directed by Harold Ramis. In the movie, Clark and Ellen Griswold take their children, Rusty and Audrey, on a hilarious and ill-fated, cross-country road trip in the “Wagon Queen Family Truckster.”

In addition to signing Chase and D’Angelo up for the new campaign, HomeAway recently purchased an exact replica of the Family Truckster for use in the campaign, as well as for promotional marketing activities that will launch next year. “The Truckster got pretty beat up in the movie, but we plan to keep ours in good shape so we can take it around the country to visit some of our top vacation rental markets,” Sharples says.

Through a promotional licensing agreement with Warner Bros. Consumer Products, the company has use of the “National Lampoon’s Vacation” property and is working with its agency of record, Publicis in the West, to develop and produce the ad campaign, which will span across multiple media platforms during 2010.

NATIONAL LAMPOON’S VACATION and all related characters and elements are trademarks of and © Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.
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About HomeAway, Inc.
HomeAway, Inc., based in Austin, Texas, is the worldwide leader in online vacation rentals, representing more than 425,000 paid vacation rental home listings throughout 120 countries. HomeAway offers an extensive selection of vacation homes that provide travelers with benefits, including more room to relax and added privacy for less than the cost of traditional hotel accommodations, as well as full kitchens and extra amenities such as private pools. In addition, the company makes it easy for owners of vacation rental properties to advertise their rental properties and manage their bookings online. The HomeAway portfolio includes the leading vacation rental websites HomeAway.com, VRBO.com and VacationRentals.com in the United States; HomeAway.co.uk and OwnersDirect.co.uk in the United Kingdom; FeWo-direkt.de in Germany; Abritel.fr and Homelidays.com in France; and HomeAway.es in Spain. For more information, please visit www.HomeAway.com.