Reflections on Detroit and the Chrysler Superbowl Ad

Sioux Trujiillo
Associate Director
community+public arts:DETROIT

Being immersed in Detroit day in a day out. Working for some of the most underserved neighborhoods in the city. Being an artist in Detroit for 20 years and a community organizer for the last 5 years. I have a few things that I reflected on after watching the Chrysler Superbowl ad that I would like to share with you.

First off, I love that the ad used Detroit’s most iconic public art as a symbol of Detroit’s toughness. I believe that Detroit’s creative community will help Detroit reinvent itself into something so new the rest of the country will have to catch up to us. I also like that Chrysler decided to take the opportunity to highlight the positive of Detroit. We are in transition and we have many people including myself who work tirelessly to make Detroit something new while honoring or history.

That being said, I also don’t forget that Chrysler along with Ford and GM has strangled the life out of this city by closing plants and devaluing our skilled labor force. I wonder if that Portland firm that wrote this commercial knew that the Diego Rivera’s mural “The Detroit Industry” featured in the ad is a tribute to the city's manufacturing base and labor force of the 1930s. I wonder if they thought about all of those skilled workers that have no job because of the 11 Chrysler plants that have been closed in the Detroit area since 1980? I wonder if they thought about how bad mouthing the labor unions has cost Detroiters fair paying jobs. I wonder if they thought about Joe Louis Barrow, aka “The Brown Bomber” when they decided to use “Fist of a Champion” and do they know he is one of the all-time great boxers? Do they know that he helped shatter the Nazi myth of racial superiority with the defeat of German champion Max Schmeling during the rise of Nazism? Did they know he brought into the light the hypocrisy that denied African American’s athletes access to the major leagues of American sport? When they chose Marshall Fredericks “The Spirit of Detroit” that represents the spirit of humanity did they notice in the left hand he is holding a family? Did they think about the Detroit family’s that are now homeless because of the devastation the auto makers have brought on to this city?

That ad cost 9 million dollars of the taxpayer’s 15 million that we gave them in bail out money. 9 million dollars for a one shot commercial to boost their brand. If Chrysler wants to showcase Detroit and let the nation know that we can still build quality I think they should give our neighborhoods that 9 million dollars and watch us rebuild our communities using art as a centerpiece.

View entire Chrysler commercial here.