Analyzing Lumber 84's Super Bowl Advertising

Communications and marketing require the communicator to address multiple audiences and determine their behaviors, psychographics, demographics, among many other factors. Thinking about multiple audiences before the creation of communications messages allows the communicator to determine what messages work best for each particular audience. Communicators face a time where audience reception is the most important factor in the communication cycle. No longer are audiences passive receivers of communication messages; rather, audiences play a prominent role in the production of a message’s meaning. Analyzing Lumber 84’s 2017 Super Bowl advertisement through the lens of Stuart Hall’s theory of coding and decoding, allows communicators to understand

One of these organizations was Lumber 84, located in Pennsylvania, who created a video that showcased a mother and daughter’s journey towards become legal American citizens by crossing Mexico to reach the American border. The five minute and forty-four second advertisement was originally shown on networks during the 2017 Super Bowl, although only half of it was shown. Lumber 84 published the full video on its website that night. The entire video depicts the mother and daughter travelling across rough terrain and struggling to make it to the border. Intertwined within clips of the mother daughter are construction workers working on a project. At the end of the video, they finally reach the border and find a wall—President Trump’s proposed barrier—separating them from the life they wish they could have. Just when they thought their journey was over, they notice a door as tall as the wall itself; they are able to push it open and walk onto American soil. The video ends with a shot of a constructor worker’s truck driving down the highway with a super that reads: “The will to succeed is always welcome here”, and ends with Lumber 84’s logo. Lumber 84 coded this message with their own company values. This advertisement, while making a political statement, was also an advertisement directed towards future employees of the company. The coded meaning of Lumber 84’s message was that they want individuals who are hardworking and dedicated, regardless of where they come from. In addition, Lumber 84 wanted to take a stance on the current political atmosphere and the views of Trump’s office. According to Hall’s point-of-view, some audiences will “understand” the message Lumber 84 was attempting to convey, because these views are dominant. Many people who fall on the left-wing side of politics