Eminem and Me

Wow, I've never hustled a television commercial into my classroom as fast as I imported "Imported in Detroit", the two minute Chrysler Super Bowl commercial featuring Eminem.



I used it with my professional development group.  This one featured a team that is working on "Reimagining Detroit".  I insisted that this would be the perfect launch for their challenge . . . . But then I confessed I had ripped off my own idea, second hour.  I used it for my "Convince Teenagers to Care about Politics" challenge.  How?  The focus was on convince.  We talked about how the worked to convince folks about the city and the car company.  They loved it and perked up when I said one of my former students was a famous documentary filmmaker.  I wondered if any among them might become masters of the medium.

Oh yes, I swept aside the day's lesson and used the ad in my film class too.  We watched it twice.  They had just studied Citizen Kane.  And boy were they ever ready to discuss the score, the editing, the script, the camera angles and the casting of this two minute masterpiece.

Thanks Chrysler, making me feel good about my community's potential and how I spent my day at Mercy.