A handful of companies made headlines during the Super Bowl on Sunday for seemingly taking swipes at President Donald Trump with commercials critical of his executive orders limiting immigrant and refugee entry. But it turns out 84 Lumber was not one of those companies.
The Pennsylvania-based building materials company was behind a “controversial” ad about a Spanish-speaking woman and her child who appear to be traveling from Mexico to the United States. The end of the ad, which shows the pair discovering a door in a giant wall, was allegedly prohibited from airing on TV because of its commentary on Trump’s plan for a border wall to keep out Mexican immigrants.
But on Monday, 84 Lumber CEO Maggie Hardy Magerko said the ad is not pro-immigration and that she is a supporter of the president and his agenda.
“We need to keep America safe,” the 51-year-old executive told People magazine. “America needs to be safe so you and I can have the liberty to talk ... The wall, I think it represents, to me, security. I like security.”
While she helped develop the Super Bowl spot, her personal beliefs are not necessarily reflected in it. “My intent was to show, through the mother and daughter, that through struggles we will do anything we possibly can to make [the world] a better place for our children. If I thought the wall was negative, I wouldn’t have had the wall.”
Ad agency Brunner told People that the ad was meant to tell a “patriotic story” of the land of opportunity. A press release from 84 Lumber shared Sunday explains that the door is a symbol of the company’s open and inclusive policy for their employees.
“Even President Trump has said there should be a ‘big beautiful door in the wall so that people can come into this country legally,’” she is quoted as saying in the press release. “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.”
Magerko, who took over her family’s $2.86 billion company in 1992, says she voted for Trump. She says she welcomes those working towards a better life.
“I am all about those people who are willing to fight and go that extra yard to make a difference and then if they have to, you know, climb higher, go under, do whatever it takes to become a citizen,” she told the New York Times last week. “I am all for that 110 percent. But do I want cartels? Hell, no.”
Watch the full ad below.
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