The Super Bowl is a popular destination for commercials showcasing premium water, candy and beer — but politics can make it a difficult forum.
84 Lumber, a private supplier of building materials in Pennsylvania that is advertising during the game for the first time this year, said it was forced to alter its plans for a commercial after Fox deemed its depiction of a Spanish-speaking mother and daughter confronting a border wall between the United States and Mexico, which President Donald Trump has pledged to build, as “too controversial.”
The ad, set to run before halftime during the network’s broadcast of the game Sunday, will now showcase the pair on a journey, but omit the wall. Instead, the address of a website will appear on the screen, giving viewers a chance to see how their story ends.
“I still can’t even understand why it was censored,” said Maggie Hardy Magerko, 84 Lumber’s president and owner. “… It’s not pornographic, it’s not immoral, it’s not racist.”
Advertisers pay millions of dollars for commercial space during the game, but the network and the National Football League maintain the right to approve any ad. “We review spots to ensure they do not violate our advertising policies,” a league spokesman, Brian McCarthy, said in an e-mail.
Fox declined to comment, but the network’s advertising guidelines online say that, in general, it will not sell commercial time “for viewpoint or advocacy of controversial issues.”
But with political tension running high since the election of Trump, keeping politics away from the broadcast completely is a difficult task.
Budweiser, for instance, has gained notice it wasn’t anticipating for its Super Bowl ad. The commercial, which was released online this week and has passed 2 million views on YouTube, recounts how the brewery’s co-founder immigrated to the United States from Germany in the 1800s and notes the discrimination he overcame. Budweiser has emphasized that it is not responding to Trump’s immigration crackdown last weekend.
“We believe beer should be bipartisan, and did not set out to create a piece of political commentary,” Marcel Marcondes, vice president for marketing at Anheuser-Busch InBev, said. “However, we recognize that you can’t reference the American dream today without being part of the conversation.”
In the case of 84 Lumber, Magerko said that Fox vetoed the company’s initial idea based on a storyboard of the proposed commercial from Brunner, the company’s ad agency. That document, which was reviewed by the New York Times, said the commercial would show a mother and daughter on “an arduous journey north,” as U.S. workers built a large structure. Their journey appeared doomed once they reached the wall until a patriotic symbol inspired them to find a massive doorway — which is what the workers were creating all along. The final line: “The will to succeed will always be welcome here.”
Magerko, who said she voted for Trump, said the ad was meant to recruit employees in their 20s “who really believe in American dreams.” She expressed concern about the labor shortage her company is facing. She said she had a welcoming attitude toward certain immigrants, while providing the caveat that she had faith in elected officials to “make the decisions to make us safe.”
A company representative confirmed that it spent more than $5 million on the ad, which was the average rate this year for 30 seconds.
The company, which draws about $2.9 billion in revenue per year and has been rebuilding since the recession, is keen on igniting a conversation around housing and labor, she said. As for immigration and the wall, “We didn’t know this was going to be the hot topic six weeks ago.”
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