Detroit · October 19, 2017 0

In new video, Detroit’s Amazon HQ2 bid touts city’s ‘resilient’ work ethic, design legacy

Today was the deadline for cities to submit their bid packages to Amazon for its second global headquarters and, to be expected, Dan Gilbert & Co. delivered the joint Detroit-Windsor bid complete with a new website and glossy video.

Titled “Detroit. Move Here. Move the World,” the promotional video follows the footsteps of Chrysler’s “Imported from Detroit” Super Bowl ad, with shopworn platitudes about “authenticity,” “work ethic” and being “the most resilient people on the planet” mixed with stirring music and some genuinely striking imagery highlighting our design strengths. The voiceover sounds like a poetry slam, except it’s more often informational than poetic, a style I’ve dubbed infoetry. Not surprisingly, it features plenty of Bedrock-affiliated visuals, including Rock Ventures-funded sneaker startup StockX, the new driverless downtown shuttle bus and the Z Garage alley.

More than 100 cities are thought to be vying to be home to the online retail Goliath’s new HQ2, and Detroit was always going to be a heavy underdog. Will this video be enough to sway the online retail giant to pick the D?

Also, click through this to the original video on Little Rock’s HQ2 bid. LOL: