Twenty-eight Detroit-area corporate leaders launched an advertising campaign Sunday in the Free Press, New York Times, Washington Post and other news outlets saying that despite municipal bankruptcy, Detroit has a very bright future.
“Right now,” the full-page newspaper ad states, “despite our municipal bankruptcy, our residential occupancy rates and Detroit’s office market occupancy are both at their highest highest levels in decades.”
The ads appeared in the Sunday editions of the Detroit, New York and Washington papers. On Tuesday, ads will appear in the Wall Street Journal and Financial Times, to be followed over the next week by ads on Politico.com and in USA TODAY, the Michigan Chronicle and Crain’s Detroit Business.
Cost of the ads will be about $600,000, said Dan Loepp, CEO of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, who conceived the idea along with Gerry Anderson, CEO of DTE Energy.
“There was a lot of pent-up frustration,” Loepp said, over negative national news media coverage following Detroit’s Chapter 9 bankruptcy filing. “We felt a need to say something. Hopefully it will stir the pot a little.”
Under the headline “Here’s $250 Billion That Says the City of Detroit Has a Very Bright Future,” are the signatures of 28 executives who head companies with a cumulative market value of $250 billion.
Signatories, along with Loepp and Anderson, are automotive CEOs Bill Ford, Dan Akerson, Sergio Marchionne and Roger Penske, along with Quicken Loans Chairman Dan Gilbert, Ilitch Holdings CEO Chris Ilitch, Henry Ford Health CEO Nancy Schlichting and Meijer co-CEO Hank Meijer.
In a blog post about the campaign on the Blue Cross website, Loepp wrote, “The idea for the ad started from a conversation I had with Gerry Anderson.
“We had grown weary of the onslaught of negative reports that painted Detroit as a dying city,” he added, “with too little attention paid to the thriving downtown, Midtown and other areas filled with promise that we in the business community are invested in and remain committed to. So we asked our peers to join us in a statement of support.
“Hopefully,” Loepp wrote, “this ad encourages people to look beyond the city’s current financial situation and see the promise that we know is ahead.”
