AirBnB's highly buzzed about Super Bowl commercial, noted for its criticism of President Donald Trump's anti-immigration ban, was conceived and edited just a week before Super Bowl LI.
The #WeAccept ad features the text "We believe no matter who you are, where you're from, who you love or who you worship, we all belong. The world is more beautiful the more you accept" over a montage of different faces. The TV ad first ran during Super Bowl LI, where commercials were selling for approximately $5 million for 30-seconds.
A person close to the company told CNBC AirBnB first asked about purchasing a Super Bowl ad early in the week before the game. The company was inspired to make a statement after Trump's sudden ban restricting travel and immigration by non-U.S. citizens from seven majority-Muslim countries. (A judge suspended that ban on Saturday.) Upon finding there was still ad space left, the company made the decision to purchase an ad on Thursday.
The three founders – CEO Brian Chesky, chief product officer Joe Gebbia and chief technology officer Nathan Blecharczyk – edited the commercial themselves, according to this person. They used existing footage initially filmed in September 2016 for its "Community Commitment" ad campaign, which highlighted AirBnB's non-discrimination user agreement. Most of the people featured in the ad are AirBNB employees and their family members, although some are actors. The three finished editing the piece and sent it to Fox on Friday.
The New York Times previously reported the quick turnaround time for the ad. One commenter on Twitter criticized the story as "not true," noting that it used previously shot footage.
https://twitter.com/jeffbercovici/status/828680899944390656
However, while the footage was not all new, the ad itself was turned around in a few days, according to our source.
According to social video marketing company Unruly, AirBNB's commercial was the third most shared Super Bowl ad this year online, behind Budweiser's pro-immigrant "#BornTheHardWay" and Mr. Clean's sexy "Cleaner of Your Dreams."