Trump supporters urge boycotts after pro-immigrant Super Bowl ads
Supporters of President Donald Trump have called for boycotts of companies that appeared to criticise the president’s immigration policies in advertisements broadcast during the US Super Bowl. Airbnb’s ad included a diverse group of individuals accompanied by text promoting inclusivity, whilst Coca-Cola showed a 2014 ad which also celebrated diversity. The ad for building suppliers 84 Lumber showed a Spanish-speaking mother and child by a border wall. The most controversial ad came from Budweiser and depicted the migration of the company’s co-founder from Germany to the US.
The National Football League and Fox, the broadcaster of the game, maintain the right to approve ads, and some advertisers walked a tightrope to get ads with immigrants approved. Before the game started, Coca-Cola re-aired an ad from 2014 called “America the Beautiful,” which depicts Americans of different races and religions singing the song in a variety of languages. The building supply company 84 Lumber had to change an ad that showed a Spanish-speaking mother and daughter in front of a border wall.

In a memo to employees after the executive order, Airbnb’s chief executive, Brian Chesky, was more explicit about his opposition. “This is a policy I profoundly disagree with, and it is a direct obstacle to our mission at Airbnb,” Mr. Chesky wrote on Jan. 29. That weekend, the company began to provide free and subsidized temporary housing for people who had been affected by the immigration restrictions.

Two Airbnb officials who were not permitted to speak on the record said the company had not planned to advertise during the Super Bowl until executives heard there was still ad space left.

Mr. Chesky and the company’s two other founders, Joe Gebbia and Nathan Blecharczyk, worked with Jonathan Mildenhall, the company’s head of marketing, to put together the 30-second spot in three days, an effort that typically takes weeks or even months.