84 Lumber's The Journey debuted during Super Bowl LI in 2017, using a two-part narrative about a Mexican mother and daughter to drive recruitment across the
ARCHIVE84 Lumber's The Journey Redefined Super Bowl Storytelling in 2017
84 Lumber's "The Journey" is a two-part recruitment campaign that aired during Super Bowl LI on February 5, 2017, in the United States, following a Mexican mother and daughter on a physical and emotional journey toward an unseen destination, with the broadcast version ending before its conclusion and directing viewers online to watch the full five-minute film.
The campaign marks 84 Lumber's first appearance in Super Bowl commercial history. Created by Pittsburgh agency Brunner, the work was designed not to sell building materials but to attract a new generation of workers — specifically young adults, particularly men between the ages of 20 and 29, into management-training and other positions across the company's then-250 outlets operating in 30 states. The ambition was both creative and operational: 84 Lumber was planning expansion into at least 20 additional outlets at the time, and the talent pipeline mattered as much as the brand moment.
The broadcast version ran 90 seconds during Super Bowl LI, airing nationally just prior to halftime. It introduced a mother and daughter embarking on what appears to be a long and arduous journey, but stopped before revealing where they were headed or what they would find. That deliberate incompleteness was the strategic mechanism: viewers were directed online to watch the conclusion. The online film extended the story to five minutes, completing the narrative arc. The campaign contains two media assets — the broadcast television spot and the full online film — functioning together as a single, coordinated piece of work. The Clapboard Score for "The Journey" is 84 out of 100, reflecting the campaign's strong strategic architecture, cultural resonance, and distinctive use of the Super Bowl format in the United States market.
ARCHIVE84 Lumber entered Super Bowl LI with a recruitment objective rather than a brand-awareness or sales goal. The company operated 250 outlets across 30 states in 2017 and was actively planning expansion into at least 20 additional locations, making the need for skilled and management-track employees an immediate operational priority. Rather than run a conventional employer-branding spot, Brunner constructed a campaign that treated the Super Bowl as a storytelling platform capable of generating sustained engagement well beyond the broadcast window.
The campaign targeted young adults, particularly men ages 20 to 29, for management-training and other roles — a demographic that, as reported by Ad Age, responds to purpose-driven narratives and seeks employers whose values align with their own. By anchoring the recruitment message inside a human story rather than a corporate one, 84 Lumber positioned itself as a company with a point of view, not merely a job listing.
The strategic decision to withhold the conclusion of the story during the broadcast and drive viewers to a digital destination was structurally sophisticated. It converted passive Super Bowl viewers into active seekers — people who would voluntarily extend their engagement with the brand by seeking out the full five-minute film online. Brunner had worked with 84 Lumber for more than five years by 2017, and the company described Brunner as an agency partner in a variety of capacities for nearly a decade, a depth of relationship that enabled the kind of creative risk the campaign required.
In the United States construction and building-materials sector, the competitive environment was crowded at the distribution level, with players such as ABC Supply Co., Builders FirstSource, and Beacon Roofing Supply all operating at significant scale, according to MDM market-leaders rankings. Against that landscape, 84 Lumber used the Super Bowl not to compete on product or price but to compete for people — a genuinely differentiated use of the medium.
Cole Webley directed "The Journey" for 84 Lumber, working with director of photography Justin Brown through production company Sanctuary. The film follows a Mexican mother and daughter as they travel an unnamed but visually arduous route, carrying their belongings and moving steadily toward a destination the broadcast version never reveals. The 90-second television cut ends on an unresolved note, with the pair still in motion — an intentional narrative suspension that makes the absence of an ending the emotional and strategic core of the spot.
The on-screen execution is built almost entirely on physical performance and landscape. The mother and daughter move through open terrain, their journey rendered with the visual grammar of dramatic fiction rather than advertising. There is no product demonstration, no employer voiceover, no conventional call to action within the film itself. The only instruction to the audience comes at the end of the broadcast cut: a prompt directing viewers online to find the conclusion. The full five-minute online version completes the story, showing the pair reaching a large wall fitted with a wooden door — a conclusion that carries both literal and symbolic weight.
Rob Schapiro served as chief creative officer at Brunner, with Dave Vissat as creative director and Derek Julin and Kevin Corfield as associate creative directors. Jeff Buchanan handled editorial through Final Cut, while Method Studios provided visual effects. Color grading was completed by Company 3. Preston Lee served as executive producer and Adam Litt as head of production at Sanctuary.
The campaign's original cut was rejected by Fox in January 2017, as reported by Ad Age and Fortune, because it was considered too political in its depiction of the border wall. The televised version was edited to end before the mother and daughter reached that point, which paradoxically amplified audience curiosity and drove the online traffic the strategy depended on.
No verified performance data specific to recruitment outcomes for "The Journey" is publicly available. However, the campaign generated measurable audience engagement that multiple sources documented in the days following Super Bowl LI. According to CNBC, citing iSpot.tv data, the ad exceeded 7 million online views shortly after the Super Bowl aired. The campaign also generated more than 81 million television ad impressions, as reported by Fortune.
Those figures are significant in context. The deliberate two-part structure — a truncated broadcast spot designed to push viewers toward a five-minute online film — succeeded in converting Super Bowl reach into digital engagement at a scale that validated the strategic approach. The online completion of the story was not supplementary content; it was the destination the entire broadcast was engineered to create.
The campaign attracted substantial press coverage, documented by outlets including the Christian Science Monitor, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, CBS Sports, and Construction Dive, primarily because its immigration narrative intersected with the ongoing national debate in the United States over President Donald Trump's proposed border wall. As noted by Construction Dive and CBS Sports, much of the public discussion treated the campaign as a political statement despite its stated recruitment purpose. That tension between intended meaning and public reception generated earned media that extended the campaign's reach far beyond its paid placements.
Fox's January 2017 rejection of the original cut, as reported by Ad Age and Fortune, became part of the story itself — a piece of pre-Super Bowl news that primed public curiosity before a single frame had aired nationally. For a construction and building-materials company entering the Super Bowl for the first time, the structural effectiveness of the campaign as a recruitment and brand-building vehicle is evident in the volume and nature of the conversation it produced across the United States.
The Journey was a recruitment campaign designed to attract young adults into 84 Lumber's workforce. The company operated 250 outlets across 30 US states in 2017 and was planning further expansion. Rather than a product ad, the Super Bowl spot directed candidates to the company's website while generating broad national awareness of 84 Lumber as an employer.
Fox rejected the original cut of The Journey in January 2017 because it was considered too political. As reported by Ad Age and Fortune, the original version explicitly depicted the US-Mexico border wall. The broadcast version was edited to end before the mother and daughter reached that point, with the full conclusion released online as a five-minute film.
The broadcast spot follows a Mexican mother and daughter traveling an arduous journey toward an unseen destination. The 90-second television version ends before they arrive, prompting viewers to find the conclusion online. The full five-minute film shows the pair reaching a large wall fitted with a wooden door, completing the narrative arc begun during Super Bowl LI.
Cole Webley directed The Journey for 84 Lumber, with Justin Brown serving as director of photography through production company Sanctuary. The campaign was created by Pittsburgh agency Brunner, where Rob Schapiro was chief creative officer and Dave Vissat served as creative director. Brunner had worked with 84 Lumber for more than five years by the time the campaign aired.
According to CNBC, citing iSpot.tv data, The Journey exceeded 7 million online views shortly after Super Bowl LI aired on February 5, 2017. The campaign also generated more than 81 million television ad impressions, as reported by Fortune. No verified data on recruitment outcomes resulting directly from the campaign is publicly available.
The Journey was 84 Lumber's first-ever Super Bowl advertisement. It aired during Super Bowl LI on February 5, 2017, in the United States. The campaign used a two-part structure — a 90-second broadcast spot and a five-minute online film — to drive viewers from television to a digital destination where the story's conclusion and recruitment messaging were fully delivered.
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