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The newest video promoting downtown Detroit as a cool place to work doesn't shy away from the B-word.
In fact, it splashes "bankruptcy" on screen in capital letters a half-minute into a slick pitch to app developers, other entrepreneurs, digital designers and creative class types of all stripes.
The presentation, taped and edited in four days by Lowe Campbell Ewald ad agency and posted Friday, is a speaker proposal to the South by Southwest Interactive Festival in Austin next March. Settings include the Campus Martius Park "beach," the Compuware Building, the "Transformers 4" set on Washington Boulevard and spots nearby.
It's narrated by creative director Iain Lanivich of Bloomfield Hills, who wants to make a presentation on why other creatives should "come join us in defining the future of Detroit."
"We're moving over 600 employees into the heart of the city," ad agency creative director Iain Lanivich says.
His agency moves early next year from Warren to the former Hudson's warehouse next to Ford Field. "The talent is moving to Detroit," Lanivich says in his four-minute spiel, embedded below.
In a particularly deft touch, the organizers of Detroit's X Games bid talk up the city in a clip that would be shown in Austin -- winner of ESPN's competition to be host for the next three summers. "You have to be real enough to live here," says Garret Koehler, standing alongside co-organizer Kevin Krease. "There's a tremendous amount of value on authenticity."
No, he doesn't say "talkin' to you, Austin" -- but it's easy to imagine the thought may have crossed his mind and the agency's.
The adman also chats with serial mobile app developer Henry Balanon, co-founder of Protean Inc. and Detroit Labs. "The best thing about working in Detroit is actually seeing it grow," he says. "Being in a startup is no longer scary in this area. It's a lot easier because other people have done it."
Speaking of scary, the Lowe Campbell Ewald folks drop a few other hard-edge words besides bankruptcy up front to address outsiders' perceptions -- "abandoned, corrupt, decayed" -- before ending the upper-case series with "alive."
"Does it bother us that Detroit went bankrupt?" Lanivich says on camera. "Not really. What matters is that it's rich in creativity, innovation and inspiration."
Similarly, Banalon tells viewers: "Things are going to get fixed. . . . I think in our lifetime, we're going to see a complete turnaround and I'm going to be here when that happens."
The inked, pierced creative director hits a similar note earlier, proclaiming: "I can't tell you exactly what Detroit is going to be like by the time I give this presentation, but I can tell you one thing for sure -- it's not going to be the way it was."
