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84 Lumber and the big-budget Super Bowl ad to nowhere
Washington Post ^ | 6 Feb 17 | Thomas Heath

Posted on 02/07/2017 2:54:41 AM PST by SkyPilot

Building supplies company 84 Lumber tackled a heap of controversy over the weekend with its carefully-crafted — yet inconclusive — 90-second Super Bowl ad featuring a Mexican mother and daughter embarking on a difficult journey north that left the viewer wondering where they ended up.

At the end of the ponderous tale, script appears on the screen: “The will to succeed is always welcome here.”

That wasn’t the full story. The Super Bowl ad asked viewers to visit the 84 Lumber website if they wanted the rest of the story. The website version included a five-minute “director’s cut” version that concludes with the pair entering the United States through a door in a towering border wall, a direct take on one of the most combustible topics in the country today. Viewers logged on to see, and 84 Lumber’s site was overwhelmed by the traffic.

[The five most political Super Bowl commercials]

That and other commercials spurred a backlash on social media and elsewhere. Some viewers accused 84 Lumber of promoting illegal immigration. Others supported the Pennsylvania company’s values that promote striving and success.

The ads cames just a week after President Trump raised a national firestorm with his order to temporarily ban refugees and immigrants from seven mostly Muslim-dominated countries as part of his national security policy.

84 Lumber wasn’t alone in the Super Bowl ad pile on. Many other big brands, from beer giant Anheuser-Busch InBev to Audi, Airbnb and Kia autos used their Super Bowl time — at $5 million per 30 seconds — to break through. The challenge is to get viewers, whether they are chatting at a party or standing among a scrum at a bar, to pause and take notice — and maybe talk about it later.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 84lumber; aliens; commercials; illegalimmigration; propaganda; superbowl
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To: SkyPilot
It's interesting that 84 Lumber touts itself as the largest privately-owned building material supplier in the U.S.

Running ads like this are a terrible way to set yourself apart from corporate giants like Home Depot and Lowe's, especially when your company has built its presence in places that are some of the "reddest" areas of the U.S.

21 posted on 02/07/2017 3:37:49 AM PST by Alberta's Child ("Yo, bartender -- Jobu needs a refill!")
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To: SkyPilot
The ad was brilliant. I now know where not to get building supplies.
22 posted on 02/07/2017 3:40:25 AM PST by Mr Ramsbotham (Laws against sodomy are honored in the breech.)
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To: SkyPilot

Have you seen the Zale’s Jewelers ad with the lesbian marriage?


23 posted on 02/07/2017 3:46:51 AM PST by N. Theknow (Kennedys-Can't drive, can't ski, can't fly, can't skipper a boat-But they know what's best for you.)
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To: Hacksaw
A good ad would be showing a Mexican work crew, who having run out of supplies, does a midnight raid at an 84 lumber yard.

A better ad would be Mexican roofers urinating on the fence in the client's backyard. Witnessed this happening on my neighbor's property and I called the Sheriff's Dept. They sent out a deputy who read those filthy wetbacks the riot act.

24 posted on 02/07/2017 3:49:15 AM PST by Godebert (CRUZ: Born in a foreign land to a foreign father.)
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To: Mr Ramsbotham
This is the kind of ad a company like Home Depot loves to see from 84 Lumber.

Let me guess: Is 84 Lumber getting started on a similar ad for next year's Super Bowl, featuring a male invader who later ends up in a prison constructed with materials supplied by 84 Lumber? Yeah -- that's the ticket! Let's go with it!

25 posted on 02/07/2017 3:58:32 AM PST by Alberta's Child ("Yo, bartender -- Jobu needs a refill!")
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To: Dr. Ursus
The CEO on Facebook really has a self -satisfied look in her photo.

You see a lot of that self-satisfaction on the mugs of the children/grandchildren who took over businesses founded by "the old man." A good number of them grew up spoiled snowflakes who became permanently unable to discern sh*t from Shinola but completely convinced that they are smarter and more virtuous than the rest of us.

I do wonder how much personal effort and creative energy she actually put into creating this ad, me being cynical enough to imagine that she simply paid some smart-assed, groupthink, safety-pin socialists at an ad agency to come up with something that the elites would view approvingly.

Mr. niteowl77

26 posted on 02/07/2017 3:59:44 AM PST by niteowl77 (First it was George Bush's fault, then it was the Russians' fault, now it's Donald Trump's fault.)
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To: Wilderness Conservative

Good for you.
May you be blessed for taking a tough stance.
It’s rarely easy to do the right thing - to walk the talk.


27 posted on 02/07/2017 4:00:26 AM PST by Iron Munro (If Illegals voted Rebublican 66 Million Democrats Would Be Screaming "Build The Wall!")
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To: VanDeKoik

Or better yet, none of that, since it has nothing to do with the Super Bowl or with lumber. The ad didn’t match the product at all and was inappropriate for the occasion. They really should stick to lumber and skip the political crap. Sheesh, everyone feels the need to “make a statement” today.


28 posted on 02/07/2017 4:03:11 AM PST by TXBlair (We will not forget Benghazi.)
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To: SkyPilot
Apparently the CEO of this company thinks her customers have a limited number of alternatives, so she can indulge her social justice fantasies using corporate money.

It's not like lumber grows on trees, you know....

29 posted on 02/07/2017 4:05:20 AM PST by Bernard (The Road To Hell Is Not Paved With Good Results)
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To: SkyPilot

I’m sure every 84 lumber location has a fence around it, and the place is locked up and alarms set when they close each night.


30 posted on 02/07/2017 4:07:53 AM PST by GreenHornet
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To: N. Theknow

I saw it. I had to back it up and watch it again to make sure I was seeing it correctly.

Well, I know which jewelry store not to patronize.


31 posted on 02/07/2017 4:08:08 AM PST by TXBlair (We will not forget Benghazi.)
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To: wastoute

“We have to hope the libtards remain this tone deaf. They are just pissing off half the country.”

They will.

L


32 posted on 02/07/2017 4:08:11 AM PST by Lurker (America burned the witch.)
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To: Bernard

Maggie Hardy Magerko - 84 Lumber Owner & President


33 posted on 02/07/2017 4:08:42 AM PST by Iron Munro (If Illegals voted Rebublican 66 Million Democrats Would Be Screaming "Build The Wall!")
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To: Bernard
This company was run by an old guy who was a pal of the golf John Daly... He must have died.
34 posted on 02/07/2017 4:10:34 AM PST by KSCITYBOY (The media is corrupt)
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To: niteowl77

There’s a big dose of corporate SJW virtue signalling involved in the ads under discussion. Similarly in the amicus curae brief on the visa hold lawsuit by all the Sily Valley firms.


35 posted on 02/07/2017 4:10:39 AM PST by FreedomPoster (Islam delenda est)
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To: SkyPilot

Know that Magerko lives on the grounds of her luxury resort complete with own golf course, ski runs, zoo, casino spa, etc. She never sees any Mexicans.


36 posted on 02/07/2017 4:11:09 AM PST by all the best
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To: SkyPilot

But, but, but.....

All the people who wouldn’t know a 10 penny nail from a sledge hammer love this ad.


37 posted on 02/07/2017 4:13:55 AM PST by Iron Munro (If Illegals voted Rebublican 66 Million Democrats Would Be Screaming "Build The Wall!")
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To: Tallguy

Seriesly, most I know on facecrack just wanted one day without politics. any advertiser who made one of these stupid “inclusive” diversity libtard ads is a moron. I watched bits and pieces of the game, and by far the dumbest ad I saw was the one about the father debating what to tell his daughter, who I guess he thinks lives in a muslim country and not America.


38 posted on 02/07/2017 4:24:44 AM PST by visualops (WooHoo Trump Train! Get on board or get out of the way!)
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To: SkyPilot

More and more companies “got it” now it seems and avoided the issue stance bs.


39 posted on 02/07/2017 4:26:19 AM PST by jughandle (Big words anger me, keep talking.)
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To: SkyPilot

‘Scuse me....but what artist do you know that doesn’t have their personal beliefs in their work?? what a bunch of crap. F- 84 Lumber they don’t deserve anyone’s business, pay more get your Lumber elsewhere, builders. boycott 84 Lumber add them to the ever-growing list now it’s Nordstroms Neiman’s Macy’s 84 Lumber Starbucks Target and on and on and on I can do it not a problem! #makesmehappyagain


40 posted on 02/07/2017 4:26:33 AM PST by connyankee (#MAGABEGINS)
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