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American football fans had a lot to talk about after Sunday night’s game—the first overtime in Super Bowl history, the Patriot’s unexpected comeback and 84 Lumber’s commercial.
According to Time, the building materials company’s ad “tells the story of a Hispanic mother and daughter making the treacherous journey north to the United States.”
The article says that the full immigration-themed ad was originally rejected by Fox for being “too controversial for TV.” 84 Lumber aired a shortened version during the Super Bowl and directed viewers to watch the full video of the advertisement online.
So many viewers visited 84 Lumber’s website to see the full commercial that the company’s website went down, The New York Times reports. The commercial was among the top 10 Super Bowl commercials talked about on Sunday and Monday “along with big names such as Coca Cola Co., Anheuser-Busch Budweiser and Pepsi, according to social data intelligence company Talkwalker” the Times article says.
On the following Monday, 84 Lumber was mentioned more than 100,000 times on Facebook, and the company’s Facebook page saw 1 million hits, according to the article. The YouTube video of the commercial has more than 10.6 million views as of this writing.
The lumber company has addressed the attention the ad garnered on social media. It shared its statement on Twitter and Facebook. Read the statement shared on Facebook by Maggie Hardy Magerko, President and Owner of 84 Lumber.
Viewers expressed their thoughts on the ad on social media. USA Today reports that viewers shared mixed reactions on Twitter and Facebook.
Regardless of where you stand on political issues, it’s important to always consider the do’s and don’ts of expressing your political opinions and how it may impact your customers or potential customers.
84 Lumber is a building materials retailer with more than 250 retail locations and is headquartered in Eighty-Four, Pennsylvania.
