Berkley Resident Participates in Pure Michigan Commercial Shot at Detroit Zoo

A couple dozen songbirds were spotted in the tunnel of the Arctic Ring of Life Tuesday morning at the in Royal Oak. But, don't worry: None of our feathered friends escaped from the Matilda Wilson Free-Flight Aviary. The songsters were people filming a Pure Michigan commercial.

"What we are doing is traveling to 50 cities in Michigan in one week," filmmaker Rob Bliss said. "We've already been from Marquette to Sault Ste. Marie to Mackinac Island. What we are doing is having each city sing one line to a Top 40 pop song – Carly Rae Jepsen's 'Good Time' – and we are replacing it with Pure Michigan lyrics. It's all about how great Michigan is."

You may already know Bliss and his partner Jeff Barrett from their popular Grand Rapids LibDub video, a tour of their hometown to the tune of "American Pie."

According to a blog post on Pure Michigan, the duo is creating an "energetic digital video that highlights various things the state has to offer. The video will serve as a way to help tell the story of Michigan as a great place to live, work, play and build a business."

"Today is my sister's birthday and she wanted to be in a commercial," said Lisa Burdt of Berkley, who learned about the project on Facebook. "It was pretty cool. We sang a song about the polar bears and kind of changed the words to a hit song."

Instead of singing the "Good Time" lyric: "Feet down dropped my phone in the pool again," Burdt and the others sang, "Freaked out by all these polar bears again."

Before filming, Bliss ran through the lyrics with the group. He asked anyone with an "atrocious voice" to please stand near the back away from the microphone. The whole process took less than 40 minutes to complete.

"I am very happy with how it went," Bliss said. "Everyone said they couldn't sing, but clearly they could."