Filed under: Packers, Steelers, AFC North, NFC North, Super Bowl, Sports Business and Media
Chrysler's extraordinary two-minute commercial that ran during Sunday's Super Bowl included the contemporary rapper Eminem and a quick edit between two iconic visual elements of Motor City history.The first was a series of shots showing the Joe Louis "Fist" monument, an 8,000-pound sculpture of a forearm and a fist outside City Hall that honors the heavyweight boxing champion who rose from Detroit's Black Bottom in the 1930s.
The second shot showed a portion of the acclaimed Diego Rivera "Detroit Industry" murals at the Detroit Institute of Arts painted during the Louis era, during the Great Depression.
The Rivera portion focused in tightly on the forearms of two men -- one white, one black -- whose taut, straining muscles mirrored the effect of the Louis monument. Their strength operated the machinery that put the world on wheels.
Officially, the commercial is a two-minute ad for a new product, the Chrysler 200. Artistically, it is a vision of a city that, like a boxer, has been knocked down hard by multiple punches but has struggled to its feet at the referee's count of nine.
Overall, the ad is an astonishing work of art and one of the best television commercials ever made, a mini-documentary about the history and current personality of a region.
"What does this city know about luxury, huh?" a narrator asks, an edge in his voice. "What does a city that's been to hell and back know about the finer things in life?"
Much of the commercial seems to be shot from a moving car showing the smokestacks of factories and some bleak streets reflected in side mirrors, rear-view mirrors and the shiny black paint of the car.
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Source: http://nfl.fanhouse.com/2011/02/07/eminem-chrysler-hit-on-all-cylinders-for-motor-city/
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