Dear Detroit: Stop in the Name of Love

Alex DeMuth ’15 was driving around Detroit in mid-March, when he noticed the city — his new hometown — wasn’t taking the pandemic too seriously. To be fair, the country itself was still slowly adjusting to the new normal. Michigan hadn’t reached a thousand new COVID-19 cases a day. Woodward Ave., Detroit’s main drag, was crowded. The auto factories hadn’t powered down yet. Reality was slow to settle in.

But this Cleveland kid wanted to help.

A brand strategy consultant for Doner advertising agency, DeMuth spends his days inspiring big names like Coca-Cola to take action using behavioral data. Though he graduated with a degree in finance, he says, sociology was his favorite Bentley course. “As much as it’s a place, Detroit is an idea,” he explains. “To me, it represents this attitude and mindset of grittiness, resiliency and toughness. It’s like it’s ingrained in the city. And it’s not just those who live here, but everyone who believes in this ideology of the city.”

He wondered: How could he use Detroit’s social identity to keep the city safe, resilient — and hopeful?

Sidewalk chalk drawings of suns and rainbows. Crayola “thank you” posters in the window. Honking parades for teachers. Like all of us, Demuth noticed what he calls “positivity signals” popping up daily. He brought the idea of a positivity video to his colleagues.

Within days, an homage to Detroit — and a rallying cry to stay put and stay safe — was born. The video has been featured on MSNBC’s The Last Word, CBS This Morning and more. A city-wide billboard campaign has launched. And, most emotionally for DeMuth, the video is now playing outside the TFC Center, a convention center that has become a temporary hospital and overflow care center by FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

He says: “For our video to be deemed good enough and to have the right message to be played outside the FEMA hospital for the city where the air is so thin, where tensions are high and people are anxious and uncertain…it’s incredible and I hope it brings them hope.”