So, the Patriots just won the Super Bowl. They said it was impossible, that nobody could make a comeback from that far behind that late in the game. I seem to remember hearing something like that last November. But everybody knows the truly important thing about the Super Bowl is the commercials, and I want to talk to you about the one 84 Lumber ran tonight.
In case you haven’t seen it. The ad played during the game was a short spot that began with a Mexican woman being woken up by her daughter. The two head out on a mission to illegally cross the United States border, and along the way the daughter is picking up bits of fabric. It ends with the duo sitting by a campfire in the desert, and a message to see the rest of the journey at their website.
Right here we can remark about the brilliance of the ad. A contentious political issue, being exploited by an advertiser during the most watched television event in the country, to get people to their website. It could pay for itself in controversy alone, or it could turn one or both halves of the country against you. One thing’s for sure, people are going to talk about it.
If you go to the website you see a longer version of the the advertisement. In this one the scene continues into the next morning as the mother and daughter walk the desert with several other people. The daughter is thirsty and asks the mother for water, but she doesn’t have any. So the mother asks fellow travelers for some of theirs, and they provide it, showing what virtuous people they are.
Someone else has a bottle of water too. He’s a brown skinned man working on a construction site along with a diverse workforce of other laborers. The mother and daughter suddenly seem to have lost the nice folks who gave them life saving water, as they approach the newly built border wall which wasn’t nearly half as beautiful as the God Emperor had promised. The daughter opens her backpack, and shows her mother that the fabric she had been picking up along their journey were all red white and blue, and she used them to make an American Flag out of garbage. The mother is so proud, she sheds a tear and hugs the future postmodern art major.
A man is driving away from the construction site. A white man, in a pickup truck, you know the type. He has a bunch of lumber in the back of his truck as he is driving away, obviously feeling good about his day’s work building racist walls.
But, oh wait! The mother sees something a little further down the wall. She urges her daughter to rush toward it with her, and there it is. A big beautiful door on our not so beautiful wall, made out of wood. The scene flashes back to the white man in the truck, then back to the border jumpers. The mother pushes on the door, and it opens, reminding racist white people why they lock their doors, and why we need snipers on the wall.
The scene flashes back to back of the white man’s truck, and the lumber in it. Across the screen appear the words “The will to succeed is always welcome here” and we end with the company logo.
I imagine I’m not the only one who felt pretty good seeing that, at first. It reminds me of a thing I used to believe very strongly in. America is a place where people who are willing to put in the effort can make anything of themselves. A place where we’ve moved beyond physical appearances and live together as a people united under the ideas of freedom, merit, and prosperity. A place that welcomed all who wanted to strive for a better life.
It even tried to bridge the gap between our very polarized political parties, and take some of the wind out of the sails of the left wing insurrectionists trying to overthrow the president. It was done beautifully, and I wish I was your average person who didn’t...