Larkin alum entertains Super Bowl aspirations
'Mouse Trap' ad: Producer hopes to be chosen for commercial spot
ELGIN -- The Super Bowl will take hours of painstaking strategy and muscle power for the Bears. But to Jed Babbitt, a 1995 Larkin graduate, the most important part of the Super Bowl will be wrapped up in the first commercial break.
Babbitt will be nervously biting his lips waiting to see whether his Super Bowl ad was chosen.
(Courtesy Photo)
Babbitt is the producer in a group of 18 independent directors, actors and crew members who produced a 30-second commercial called "Mouse Trap," which may be aired during the Super Bowl. The commercial is one of five finalists in the Doritos "Crash the Super Bowl" contest. Each of the five finalists won a $10,000 prize for being chosen, but the real prize is yet to come.
"Mouse Trap" is about a man coming home and sitting in his recliner after he sets a mouse trap using a Doritos chip. A giant mouse jumps out of the wall and attacks the man sitting in his chair, foiling his attempt to trap it.
"I have a whole new reason to watch the commercials," Babbitt said. "They will be airing the winner during the first commercial break ... luckily, we find out if we win during the first commercial break, and if we do, it will be the first of two Chicago victories on Sunday."
Babbitt hopes the commercial's theme serves as a prophetic analogy for the Bears' victory prospects.
"There is a plot twist where the underdog wins, which is an analogy -- the mouse beats the spread .... Our commercial should win because of its great tackling, and we all know a good defense wins championships."
Babbitt's creative juices started flowing around the same time as the Bears 1986 Super Bowl; he was just 9 years old when he watched The Search for Animal Chin , a 1980s skateboard movie, and was inspired to produce his own skateboard movies.
Today, Babbitt works as an professional freelance producer. After graduating from Larkin High School, where he was class president, and from Elgin Community College in 1996, where he was president of the honor society, he went to Loyola University to get a degree in finance. Babbitt held several jobs, ranging from DJ for 88.7 FM in Chicago, where he went by the moniker Jed James, to working in the mortgage industry, to running a computer company in Barrington. His desire to pursue a full-time creative career drove him to move to Los Angeles in 2005 to pursue his career in production.
Despite the distance, Babbitt hasn't forgotten his connection to the Chicago area. When asked about Elgin and the Bears, Babbitt has a lot to say.
"I watch every game, which is hard to do in L.A.," he said. "I am a big enough Bears fan that I have been hurt by the last few years and excited to see Lovie (Smith) turn it around. I can still do the Super Bowl Shuffle."
Babbitt says that his Elgin roots have helped mold him into the professional he is today. He still remembers his days of delivering The Courier News on his skateboard.
"Growing up in Elgin may seem like you are stuck in a little town, but Elgin is really a city that prepares people for bigger and better things, globally," Babbitt said. "Elgin gets a bad rap when you are a kid, but it is actually a microcosm that is diverse and creative."
Babbitt's impressive and variegated resume is typical of up-and-coming Los Angeles film and entertainment professionals. The entire crew for "Mouse Trap" is independent; their hope is that their commercial will win and bring them enough publicity to land a job at a major production company.
"If people are talking about this commercial the day after, I am sure they will run it some more," Babbitt said.
The commercial cost a total of $1,700 to produce, just a fraction of what it costs to make most professional commercials, and an even smaller fraction of the $2.6 million that it costs a company to purchase a 30-second spot during the Super Bowl.
Chris Rossiter, director of broadcast production for ad agency Leo Burnett USA, says that the although Super Bowl ads are always expensive, production costs don't have to be.
"If you're making a big splash with an epic piece full of celebrity talent, multiple locations, massive crowds, special effects and the like, you're going to spend big," Rossiter said. "On the other hand, we've certainly seen simpler ideas executed inexpensively that are designed to create irony by being understated during the biggest media event of the year. It really just depends on the idea. There is no average. It's about doing what you're doing well, not how much you're spending."
Although the competition for the spot is stiff, Babbitt and his team are confident that their commercial will stand out.
"Of the five, ours is the most professional and has the biggest chance to translate to a feature commercial with an established production company," Babbitt said.
As for his affinity for Doritos, it all depends.
"I gave up junk food when I moved to L.A., but if we win I may have to reconsider," Babbitt said.
