'A flat-out masterpiece': Detroit ad on COVID-19 crisis inspires rest of nation

Back in late March, which seems more like a century ago than a couple of months, the Detroit-based Doner advertising agency posted a one-minute spot called "When the Motor Stops."

Using black-and-white footage, it spoke to the resilience and strength of the Motor City during the shutdowns and stay-home orders resulting from the COVID-19 crisis.

"It feels unnatural to not be in motion, for the city built on four wheels to stand still. But these vacant streets, empty stadiums are not signs of our retreat, but of our resolve. This is not us sitting out the fight. This is us winning it," said a voice-over narrator

The short film also summed up the mood by using a line from a classic Motown hit: "Because here, we don't stop in the name of fear. Here, we stop in the name of love."

The final frames came with a message: "Stay safe, Detroit."

The spot arrived online before things got divisive, before wearing masks became a political battle, before protests  emerged to reopen Michigan and other states. It captured a moment in time when we truly felt as if we were all in this together. 

No wonder it caught fire on social media and still is generating interest across the country. Doner estimates it has been seen a million times cumulatively.

Overall, it has received an "incredible response," says CEO David Demuth.

 "When the Motor Stops" is tentatively scheduled to be featured in a story on advertising for the next  "CBS Sunday Morning," according to Doner. It's the latest example of how the ad has captured imaginations since its March 31 premiere.

In an April story on coronavirus-inspired advertising, San Francisco Chronicle film critic Mick LaSalle called the spot a  "flat-out masterpiece, the first pandemic commercial to qualify as a beautiful work of art."

Wrote LaSalle: "I have never even been to Detroit, and aside from Eminem, I’ve never really thought much about it. But every time I see this 'Stay Safe, Detroit' commercial, I get tears in my eyes."

Actor Ashton Kutcher retweeted the spot in early April to his nearly 18 million Twitter followers. DeMuth says the project has gotten coverage everywhere from MSNBC to a South African talk show. 

Project X, a New York out-of-home media agency co-founded by metro Detroit native John Laramie, helped amplify the spot's message here at home. It gave Doner the use of 65 billboards in metro Detroit to display phrases and images from "When the Motor Stops," according to DeMuth.

So did the TCF Center (formerly Cobo Center and briefly a field hospital this spring), which played the spot on its massive digital marquee.

Several out-of-state groups followed the Doner spot's lead, including Nashville's Safford Films. The Tennessee company created a quick-turn spot titled "When the Music Stops" and acknowledged that its black-and-white footage and somber style were inspired by the Detroit original.

"That was really cool, that it spawned these tribute videos," says DeMuth.

"When the Motor Stops" also was an early indicator of the changes to come in advertising.  As the terrible toll of COVID-19 became clear, commercials everywhere shifted to content acknowledging the pandemic and trying to provide some comfort with messages of unity.

Although it's not an ad, the spot from Doner — which creates campaigns for the likes of Fiat Chrysler, Tylenol and the UPS Store — was in keeping with the industry's big-picture mission.

"It's important to understand, yeah, advertising is about selling stuff, but it's also really about modifying or changing behavior. In this instance, this is what we were asking people to do, to radically modify their behavior. Stay home," says DeMuth.

Doner's executive vice president for business development and communications, Jimmy Kollin, told the Free Press in April that the idea for the spot came from a 26-year-old brand strategist, Alex DeMuth, who is David DeMuth's son.

"He said, 'Our agency can’t make ventilators or masks, but we can make content.' So that’s what we did," Kollin said. 

The final result was put together in 48 hours and all done safely under stay-home rules. Zeke Anders, Doner's director of content production, shot the film using a camera rig he built to fit his car and edited it at home.

An executive creative director for Doner, Michael Stelmaszek, wrote the script. A Doner copywriter, Olivia Hill, did the narration, recording it in her closet for better sound. 

While most major ad campaigns undergo a lengthy process of brainstorming, client meetings and market testing, "When the Motor Stops" was a project that truly was an instance of running with an idea.

"The good part of this is very few people had to say yes. Just one, and that was me," says DeMuth. 

He admits that his first instinct as a businessman was, "Hey, we could sell this to a client." But he says his artistic side won out, as did his admiration for the team's desire to release the spot as soon as possible as a tribute to the spirit of Detroit.

More:Detroit-based ad agency releases powerful coronavirus video

DeMuth thinks the ad world soon will be ready to move into a reopening phase. "I think you're going to see in the coming weeks a little more optimism," he says.

Whatever happens next, "When the Motor Stops" continues to evoke strong emotions here and elsewhere, including at the company that made it happen.

"At a time when we're working from home, we don't see each other every day, that sense of camaraderie could be lost," says DeMuth.  "Things like this bring you together and make you feel as one."

Contact Detroit Free Press pop culture critic Julie Hinds at jhinds@freepress.com.