Last night was the 3rd Annual D Show, also my third attending. It was held downtown at the Max M. Fisher Music Center.
My favorite part of the show is seeing all the great work coming out of this blue-collar city. However, this year I was very impressed with a video tribute during the award ceremony for George Katsarelas, an executive creative director at Leo Burnett Detroit who passed away this summer. Katsarelas had been chairman of the council that oversees the D Show. Now I didn’t know him personally, but I remember him speaking at previous events. Just from listening to him speak, I knew he was a great person to model in the industry. This tribute also highlighted his humorous side and his brilliant, creative mind. One line I recall was commenting on how cool he was; “George didn’t need skinny jeans to be cool… he just was” While there was a fair share of skinny jean, black rimmed and spiked hair colleagues in attendance, you don’t have to be like that to be considered creative. Some people even looked like a long lost Jonas Brother (sorry had to throw that it there, no disrespect).
On a brighter side; Mark Ford, a division president at Time Inc., announced during the ceremony who won the advertising campaign contest to “sell Detroit”. Campbell-Ewald was the winner of the advertising campaign contest, which is aimed at keeping young creative people to live and work in Detroit. I was very pleased with the advertising community joining together for this initiative. Even though Campbell-Ewald won the competition, I hope all the agencies can work cooperatively to draw top-notch talent looking for a challenge.
Minneapolis recently launched a similar campaign, called “MinneADpolis”. A group of agencies worked together to highlight the great work of the industry and all the great aspects of living in Minneapolis.
Now Detroit might be a hard sell at the moment, but after last night I can assure you there is still oil left in this well.
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