stand up and tell 'em you're from detroit

-
Vintage Ad #2,170: Stand Up And Tell 'Em You're From Detroit

Alas poor Detroit. A city teetering on the brink of receiving an emergency financial manager appointed by the state of Michigan run its affairs .A city that has become a poster child for ruin porn. A city Forbes magazine declared to be "America’s Most Miserable City." Yep, Motown is going through a rough patch. How, when, or if it bounces back remains to be seen.

Once upon a time, following the city’s first major waves of economic decline and population movement, there were jokes about “will the last person to leave Detroit please turn out the lights.” While that line currently reflects serious proposals to shut off half the city’s streetlights, back in the mid-1980s one TV station pushed that view aside. More than just a ploy to promote the station’s news team, WXYZ tried to make viewers feel optimistic a better future was around the corner.




They couldn’t have picked a better person to urge their audience to “stand up and tell ‘em you’re from Detroit” than anchorman Bill Bonds. He wasn’t a plastic person placed in front of a desk—Bonds was a hard living, opinionated, colourful personality who wasn’t afraid to offend whoever he was interviewing, even challenging mayor Coleman Young to a fistfight. A scrappy guy for a scrappy city.




If you’re of a certain age, how many WXYZ news personalities can you pick out in this ad? While the Boblo boats no longer ply the Detroit River, you can still visit other attractions in this spot, like Eastern Market and Greenfield Village.



While researching this post, I learned that the “Stand Up and Tell ‘Em You’re From…” campaign was used elsewhere. Were Adelaide or Brisbane, Australia in dire straits or rebound mode during the mid-1980s?


Advertisement taken the 1985 Detroit Tigers Scorebook Magazine.


Comments

Amy said…
"Stand Up And Tell Them Adelaide's Great" doesn't quite have the same ring, does it?
8:22 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

past pieces of toronto: knob hill farms

-
Image
From November 2011 through July 2012 I wrote the "Past Pieces of Toronto" column for OpenFile , which explored elements of the city which no longer exist. I've republished all but two of those pieces on this website.  Here's the first of the final pair, both of which provided good lessons for future writing. Prepare yourself for a lengthy preamble.
Read more

big v: once upon a time, it was an amazing part of your life

-
Image
While dodging back alley drunks in downtown Kitchener a month ago, I noticed that the back door to a Shoppers Drug Mart bore the mark of its previous identity as part of the Big V pharmacy chain. Years of hearing their slogan "an amazing part of your life" have burned it into my brain, along with images of their comical crusading knight mascot, 25 cent cans of Coca-Cola and the free lunch cooler bags sometimes offered up with the latter. Big V was started in the mid-1960s by a group of Windsor pharmacists who joined together to pool their purchasing and marketing. Most locations were pharmacist-operated, with names reflecting the owners (DeRe, Pond's , Cornett), the neighbourhood (Seminole in Windsor) or town. The chain grew to 135 stores by the time it was purchased by Shoppers in 1995. Amherstburg's store was originally Haslehurst's Big V, then switched to the more generic "Amherstburg" by the time I started shopping there with my parents. Loc
Read more

past pieces of toronto: albert britnell book shop

-
Image
From November 2011 through July 2012 I wrote the "Past Pieces of Toronto" column for OpenFile, which explored elements of the city which no longer exist. The following was originally posted on December 2, 2011. The Starbucks at 675 Yonge Street isn’t your typical branch of the corporate coffee giant. The walls are lined with sturdy old wooden bookshelves while the floor is a checkerboard of black and white. Why this location is not like the others is hinted at on the façade. Look up to the second floor and you’ll notice a legendary name in Toronto bookselling: Albert Britnell. The quality of the literature on the shelves inside doesn’t always match the standards the Britnell family maintained for over a century of book retailing, but it’s a nod to the building’s past that comes in handy while waiting for a friend or first date. English native Albert Britnell entered the book trade by working in his brother John’s bookstore in London. Both brothers moved to C
Read more