84 Lumber’s agency, Brunner, is not the first to mock Trump in an ad. But the building products company won’t be doing so at the Super Bowl. When Brunner submitted the building supply company’s ad (its first ever Super Bowl ad) to Fox Sports, the ad was rejected. 84 Lumber is not the first advertiser to have its Super Bowl ad rejected. Soda Stream and GoDaddy can attest top that.
The 90-second spot, which was intended to spur job recruitment applications included a depiction of a border wall. Nobody would have missed the allusion. The ad was deemed to be too political.
84 Lumber will be investing an estimated amount of US$15 million – just for the airtime. Its commitment to doing so remains undented. The ad is currently being amended so that it can run.
Brunner issued a statement about the incident, which reads, “FOX rejected our original commercial because they determined that some of the imagery, including ‘the wall’ would be too controversial. So we went back and revised the spot to make it acceptable to them. 84 Lumber challenged us to create a thought-provoking 90 second spot that would tell the world who 84 Lumber is and what they stand for – a company looking for people with grit, determination and heart, no matter who they are, where they come from, or what they look like. And while that full story will no longer be told on TV at the Super Bowl, we all believe too strongly in that message to leave it on the editing room floor. So we are going to launch it during the Super Bowl and make the full story available online.”
