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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

We have a couple of them in the tri-state area.

I never see them look like they’re open, never see anyone moving around, inside or out and don’t know one single person who’s ever bought anything from that store.

Who, exactly, is their clientele?

All the local contractors use Lowes and Home Depot.


81 posted on 02/07/2017 6:31:08 AM PST by Salamander (We're pain, we're steel, a plot of knives...)
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To: SkyPilot
“This came from the heart and I didn’t do it for personal gain,” she says. “It’s not about me or my beliefs....

If it came from her heart, how can it not be about her beliefs?!

82 posted on 02/07/2017 6:31:19 AM PST by Rummyfan
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To: Cen-Tejas
Who did Maggie sleep with to get this company?

Her mother married (and slept with) the company's founder.

83 posted on 02/07/2017 6:31:49 AM PST by Pollster1 ("Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed")
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To: SkyPilot

The “50% who supported them” are definitely nowhere to be found on their FB page, [cheery bloodbath that it currently is] which has a whopping 57,787 “likes” compared to Lowes and Home Depot, with their multiple million “likes”.

Good luck to 84 Lumber
It looks they 86ed themselves.


84 posted on 02/07/2017 6:40:08 AM PST by Salamander (We're pain, we're steel, a plot of knives...)
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To: Iron Munro
Her prior job was Black Guardian of the Galaxy in Doctor Who


85 posted on 02/07/2017 6:44:14 AM PST by pepsi_junkie (ui)
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To: SkyPilot

Seeing them trying to defend themselves, on Twitter, is hilarious.

We believe in the American dream....yammer, yammer, blah, blah.


86 posted on 02/07/2017 6:46:13 AM PST by Jane Long (Praise God, from whom ALL blessings flow.)
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To: WMarshal

LOL....86 @84Lumber :-)


87 posted on 02/07/2017 6:47:08 AM PST by Jane Long (Praise God, from whom ALL blessings flow.)
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To: SkyPilot

There’s nothing the Left loves more than the Lumber Industry!

Good going CEOTARD!


88 posted on 02/07/2017 6:48:12 AM PST by The Toll
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To: Pollster1

People of European descent from Uniontown.


89 posted on 02/07/2017 6:54:56 AM PST by all the best
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To: Iron Munro
“Or should we use it to air a pro-illegal alien lecture and alienate half of our potential customers?”

Potential customers likely consist largely of blue collar workers who need jobs and vote conservatively. I'm hoping we will also be "voting" against 84 lumber policy with our wallets.

90 posted on 02/07/2017 6:56:05 AM PST by Wneighbor (A pregnant woman is responsible for TWO lives, not one. (It's a wonderful "deplorable" truth))
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To: Gen.Blather
If I understand it correctly a 30 sec. ad during the SB cost 5 million dollars, and this was their first time buying an ad for it. Truth is I have never seen an ad for their company on TV before.

Just wondering if Soros might be involved in this somehow.

91 posted on 02/07/2017 6:57:12 AM PST by mware (RETIRED)
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To: Flick Lives
90 seconds!!!!

Damn they paid 15 million for that ad.

Just damn.

92 posted on 02/07/2017 6:59:54 AM PST by mware (RETIRED)
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To: Political Junkie Too

That was beautiful.


93 posted on 02/07/2017 7:02:17 AM PST by Wneighbor (A pregnant woman is responsible for TWO lives, not one. (It's a wonderful "deplorable" truth))
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To: SkyPilot

Since they pissed off half of their customer base, 84 Lumber has announced their new name:

42 Lumber


94 posted on 02/07/2017 7:04:01 AM PST by exit82 (Making America Great Again begins with........me.)
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To: Iron Munro

$15 million and they got the Sun on the wrong side of the wall.


95 posted on 02/07/2017 7:06:05 AM PST by jaydubya2
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To: jaydubya2
$15 million and they got the Sun on the wrong side of the wall.

Good catch.

They wanted the effect of the sun shining where she was going, not where she was coming from.

A shining sun is typically used to evoke thoughts of a new dawn, a new day, a fresh start.

So they showed her self deporting!


96 posted on 02/07/2017 7:44:23 AM PST by Iron Munro (If Illegals voted Rebublican 66 Million Democrats Would Be Screaming "Build The Wall!")
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To: ImNotLying
84 Lumber: Building ladders for Trump’s wall is what we’re all about.


97 posted on 02/07/2017 8:23:05 AM PST by Iron Munro (If Illegals voted Rebublican 66 Million Democrats Would Be Screaming "Build The Wall!")
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To: SkyPilot

Are the actors in this commercial illegal immigrants or union dues paying Americans?


98 posted on 02/07/2017 9:59:03 AM PST by InvisibleChurch (https://thepurginglutheran.wordpress.com)
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To: Pollster1

Just what I was thinking. I don’t see a lot of liberals going to the lumberyard. The ones I know pay someone else to do their building and repair for them.


99 posted on 02/07/2017 10:23:58 AM PST by generally ( Don't be stupid. We have politicians for that.)
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To: niteowl77

Good post!


100 posted on 02/07/2017 11:02:14 AM PST by Dr. Ursus
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