Chrysler’s advertising campaign uses Black music to remove Detroit’s labor from the city’s narrative

In 2011, Chrysler’s advertisement for its new model 200 sedan debuted at the Super Bowl. What made this commercial different was its locating of its product in the city of Detroit, playing on and reworking its economic and cultural history. Shana Redmond argues that the advertisement is notable for the absence of both the sight and sounds of the city’s black population, a population that has been intimately involved with automotive production for decades in Detroit. She writes that Chrysler has advanced the concept of consumption as a means towards national vitality, at the expense of not portraying the importance of the city’s laborers.