Cape Town baby makes it to Super Bowl

Michael Sarembock may have just turned one last week, but the Cape Town baby’s cherubic face was already known to millions when he was featured in a Huggies diapers Super Bowl advertisement released on 7 February 2021, a few days before his first birthday.

Super Bowl commercials, known as Super Bowl ads, are high-profile television commercials featured in the United States television broadcast of the Super Bowl, the championship game of the National Football League. Super Bowl commercials have become a cultural phenomenon of their own alongside the game, as many viewers watch the game for the ads.

Little Michael appears in an advert in which a narrator introduces newborn babies to the world and tells them about all the fun they will have. “You get to eat when you want, sleep when you want, and ‘go’ when you want,” says the narrator with glee, as a businesswoman on a plane turns up her nose when Michael clearly needs a diaper change. In the long form version of the advert, he then gives the camera a wink. “I don’t know how they got him to do that!” says his mother, Cassandra Sarembock.

So how did Michael go from Cape Town kid to Super Bowl star? Cassandra, who is married to Mark and has a daughter, Deidre, aged two and a half, says people would always comment on her daughter’s striking red hair and ask if she would sign her children up to a casting agency. The busy mom never had time, but when she finally got round to it, the first casting that was offered was for babies, so Michael was up.

“Normally, parents would bring their children to a casting, but because of COVID-19, we had to put a home video together showing Michael around the house,” Cassandra says. In this video, he is shown giggling and toddling around, also with a dusting of red hair. He clearly charmed selectors from the start.

“We also had to introduce our family, and say what our favourite thing is about Michael. We then had to pretend the phone was a baby, and record ourselves pulling faces to make the baby smile!” she laughs. This was needed because the advert also shows parents pulling funny faces at their kids. To the Sarembocks’ relief, that clip didn’t make the cut.

Michael was selected for the next round, which meant he went to the casting agency’s location this time. Before every casting, his mother had to have a COVID-19 test. He eventually made it to the final cut, and was filmed doing what babies do in a special outfit selected by the wardrobe team. “You don’t know if it’s even going to be used, but the next thing, I got a call from the casting agency saying that he was in the ad!” Cassandra says. The little boy’s face is also the first image one sees when searching for the commercial online.

Family, friends, even strangers were delighted to see the pint-sized celebrity on screen. Cassandra got a message from a woman in New York who follows her on Instagram saying she was so excited when she recognised Michael in the ad.

“The best part is that we’ll be able to show him this clip as he gets older and tell him that millions of people saw his face,” she says. The proceeds from the appearance all go into Michael’s own bank account.

One of the most amazing aspects of the Huggies Super Bowl ad was that it included photos of babies born on the very day it was aired – 7 February.

How did Huggies pull that off? Kimberly-Clark, which owns the Huggies brand, explained the “logistical mastery” needed to gather “day-of” photos of newborns to air during the Super Bowl broadcast.

“Huggies started doing outreach in late 2020 to its network of hospital partners worldwide, eventually signing on dozens of partners before game day,” the company said in a press release. The hospitals then co-ordinated with expecting parents, asking them to submit their own photos and video clips of their babies to be featured in the commercial. “All the footage of the game day newborns was submitted virtually, without the brand ever having to enter a hospital,” the company said.

Three of the babies featured were born in Tampa, Florida, where the Super Bowl took place this year. Another baby’s mother was coincidentally also born on ‘Super Bowl Sunday’ in 1986.

This is the first time a diaper brand has appeared in Super Bowl adverts, and the commercial was extremely well-received. It “stole the show and topped our list of most engaged ads”, reported Campaign, a leading media website. “How did [Huggies] do it? It celebrated new babies being welcomed into the world. It didn’t need to stray into the context of COVID-19 and remind audiences of the loss and turmoil that has been experienced on a massive scale. Instead, it reminded us how adorable and hopeful babies are, and that life goes on – and it worked.”

For baby Michael, born on 11 February 2020 – just before the pandemic changed the world – his 15 minutes of fame will forever be a reminder that he brought a little laughter and light to millions when the world was in the grip of so much darkness and uncertainty.