I may be one of the few people in the US that didn’t tune into the Super Bowl.  That’s right.  I didn’t watch it.  Well, I did tune into half-time to see one of my favorite guitarists, Slash, perform—all 30 seconds of it.  What did make up for that experience was checking out the Eminem-Chrysler “Imported From Detroit” commercial on Facebook.

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, this is the commercial that you need to see.  Initially, I thought that it was some type of apologist commercial defending Detroit—plain and simple.  However, I began to pay attention to the words and saw images of places that are so familiar to me.  I could feel our tough grit in those words.  I could feel pride starting to build.

Then, when I started to hear Eminem’s song, “Lose Yourself,” I thought to myself, “Great.  Chrysler picked the perfect song to go with the commercial.”  Now, I never imagined that Eminem, himself, would appear in the commercial, since he doesn’t do commercials (until Super Bowl Sunday—this one and the Brisk spot).  I saw him driving and passing through more recognizable landmarks and neighborhoods, until he pulled up to one of Detroit’s jewels, The Fox Theatre. Eminem walked up and through the theater, passing the black gospel choir and simply, yet eloquently summarized it all up: “This is Detroit.  This is what we do.”

I can honestly say that I was never prouder to be from Detroit.  Aside from what you might think about Eminem as an artist or as a person, he is one of the few celebrities to come out of the Detroit area that has exemplified our tough, gritty, hard-working work ethic and, most importantly, chose to stay.

At least for me, I look at this as a rallying cry.  I hear stories from people that are thinking about leaving or have left.  I don’t blame them for arriving to that painful moment.  At one point in my life, I could have taken that route.  However things, such as this magazine, happened for me that gave me the strength to remain behind, draw a line in the sand and declare that I would stay and fight for the City that I believe so strongly in and has given me so much.  I have been to other cities and, while I love visiting them, could never imagine living anywhere else.

Although I’m a native Detroiter, I was curious what people living elsewhere had to say.  I had the opportunity when I was following some of the conversations on Facebook.  One of the comments came from Tony in Miami who said, during the Super Bowl,

“I began to answer Jose’s question, and then stopped to read my friend Alex’s comment.  I couldn’t have said it any better.  Eminem has tremendous credibility with the youth market.  The man is a bonafide artist whose personal story is very much the story of Detroit.  I thought it was an impressive pairing and I believe Eminem will do more for the Chrysler brand than the government’s recent bailout.”

While this commercial is a great rallying cry, we shouldn’t look at it as the end but as the starting point.  As I was following the continued conversation on Facebook today regarding this commercial and its implications, someone said it perfectly.  Now that we are inspired, what will each of us to do improve Detroit and the rest of the region?

Author: José A. Rodríguez