The Pennsylvania company 84 Lumber may have gotten more than it bargained for with their pro-immigration (or was it anti-immigration?) Super Bowl ad. Responses initially fell along political lines, condemned by some #MAGA viewers as condoning illegal immigration, while #NotMyPresident viewers gave a salute of respect for what they saw as the brand’s pro-immigration stance. And then it got complicated. Positions began to flip flop as viewers had second thoughts about the ad, and it became clear that perspective, as always, is in the eye of the beholder. At 100 Days in Appalachia, we’re listening for those perspectives and share one here:
Why people should just pause for a minute and not blindly celebrate 84 Lumber’s immigration ad
NOTE: This piece was first published at LatinoRebels.com
In 2015, when then-presidential candidate Donald Trump wanted to tone down his Mexican border wall tough talk, he told Jimmy Kimmel that the wall would have a “big beautiful door.”
It was a promise that he continued throughout the campaign season, all the way to the very end:
And when Lumber 84 spent $5 million to create a 90-second Super Bowl ad that many have celebrated, it is the longer version that got our attention because the end of ad showed what Trump was promising: a wall with “big beautiful door.”
And the indications from Lumber 84 would suggest that the whole intent for the ad was heading that way:
Our complete Super Bowl story. See a mother & daughter’s symbolic journey toward becoming legal American citizens. http://bit.ly/2ldAqYj
Which led us to check out some more about the company and how they are trying to spin it all. So we tweeted some things Sunday night. One of the social media responses the company is sharing specifically referred to Trump’s message of a door:
For all of you celebrating that @84LumberNews ad, as we suspected, they are just spouting what @POTUS has said in the past. #SuperBowl
And then there was company CEO Maggie Hardy Magerko told The New York Times:
This is what CEO of @84LumberNews told @nytimes. People should really take a moment and pause.#SuperBowl
Finally, another tweet response:
Seriously guys: @84LumberNews ad really isn’t as welcoming as you all think. Trump wall with a door imagery. #SuperBowl
Our current Twitter timeline is sharing some similar thoughts:
The @84LumberNews Super Bowl commercial was sickening on so many levels. Using heartbreak to promote themselves is repulsive #NoBanNoWall https://twitter.com/latinorebels/status/828457374029639682 …
@latinorebels@tarasu13 the ad is re-iterating trump’s words by focusing on the part they consider positive.
@latinorebels I saw it before seeing that comment and it didn’t sit right, and now it makes sense. They sweetened Trump’s disgusting message
A 84 Lumber statement from Magerko added more, but it wasn’t clear what she meant, because the statement just placed the emphasis on just inviting the “good ones:”
“Even President Trump has said there should be a ‘big beautiful door in the wall so that people can come into this country legally.’ It’s not about the wall. It’s about the door in the wall. If people are willing to work hard and make this country better, that door should be open to them.”
And it’s not just us:
@LatinoUSA @84LumberNews this isn’t as welcoming as it seems. It’s a “get in line the RIGHT way” commercial https://twitter.com/irishmexi/status/828451723203211268 …
@LatinoUSA @84LumberNews this isn’t as welcoming as it seems. It’s a “get in line the RIGHT way” commercial https://twitter.com/irishmexi/status/828451723203211268 …
Finally, before you think we are upset and angry, we are not. If others want to celebrate the ad and tells us to go to hell, that’s cool. We will disagree and that’s fine. But this ad never felt right from the very first time we saw it last night and to us, it’s more Trumpian than you think (ironic, given how Trump’s own supporters are hating the ad).
That is all.
Meanwhile, BuzzFeed (which linked to this story when it wrote its own story) reported this about 84 Lumber: “…the $2.9-billion company gave over $58,000 to Republican candidates in 2016, and donated heavily to Republican congressional candidates.”
