Why People Should Just Pause for a Minute and Not Blindly Celebrate 84 Lumber’s Immigration Ad

By:
Feb 6, 2017
11:49 AM

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:

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:

And then there was company CEO Maggie Hardy Magerko told The New York Times:

Finally, another tweet response:

Our current Twitter timeline is sharing some similar thoughts:

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:

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.

PS One more thing. This is what 84 Lumber posted Sunday night. Which begs the question: IS their ad investment really about immigrants or is it just about 84 Lumber?

UPDATE: Magerko really needs to just stop talking. Here is what EW posted:

In addition, 84 Lumber is engaging people on Twitter who are responding to the ad, although they seem to be overlooking our questions:

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.”

On February 7, 84 Lumber issued yet another statement: