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Related content: Dialog with a Reader About Our 'Tips on Fitting In'
We're glad you came, Sir Richard Branson. We appreciate the new London-Detroit flights, the Hustles Harder shirt and the nice things you say about our city.
Anyone who visits Sister Pie bakery on his first full morning here is smashing, in our view. We're chuffed to bits, you could say.
Gentlemen, don't. Just don't, please.
In that spirit, imagine we're sitting over pints and speaking frankly. We have advice to help you and accompanying U.K. journalists and business associates avoid dropping a clanger as you see more of our city this weekend after Friday night's "Hello Detroit" party at the Fillmore Theater.
Let's start with that trying-too-hard mayoral greeting at Friday morning's press conference with Mike Duggan.
Yes, you've seen Americans bump fists, including even the president. But here's the thing: When a global conglomerate's 64-year-old founder and a balding, 56-year-old mayor do it, and nether is black, it's what your people call naff. Executives and politicians here usually shake hands, just as in your land.
Another example of overdoing it comes from a member of your media entourage, Travel Weekly features editor Joanna Booth.
Here's what she tweets after Detroit-style entertainment during Thursday's inaugural flight from Heathrow:
The cast of Motown the Musical shake their thang en route to #hellodetroit with @VirginAtlantic pic.twitter.com/TGgsNPDp6D
— Joanna Booth (@jobooth_travel) June 11, 2015
"No intention to offend anyone, so apologies if I have," she replies to my heads-up that the dialect "makes you sound a way you don't want."
No sweat, Joanna -- it's clearly your host's fault if your judgment filter was impaired:
Tequila cocktail pre-9am? @VirginAtlantic made me do it #Detroit #inaugural pic.twitter.com/LjOrjwg3bc
— Joanna Booth (@jobooth_travel) June 11, 2015
In fairness, we'll note that someone at the usually sober Detroit Metro Convention and Visitors Bureau also tries to sound "street" in a tweet with an arrival day photo:
The passengers on the inaugural @VirginAtlantic flight to #Detroit chillaxin' at @PunchBowlDET #hellodetroit pic.twitter.com/sFoXYxchkM
— Visit Detroit (@VisitDetroit) June 11, 2015
Makes us wonder who else had an early tequila cocktail, or whether the trying-too-hard syndrome is contagious.
This next one counts as a partial success, as well as a missed opportunity to show how Detroit-savvy your team is.
Trip planners and designers get creativity points for using a mustard-slathered hot dog in place of the "I" in "VIP" on neck-worn credentials -- but a coney with everything (chili, onions, shredded cheddar, mustard) would've been pure Detroit rather than anytown U.S.A.
In city pride, as in global business, details matter.
To end on an upbeat note, you dropped a dandy phrase at Friday afternoon's Ain't Too Proud to Pitch event at the College for Creative Studies, as Crain's Detroit Business blogger Tom Henderson relates.
In advising entrepreneurs not to fear failure, you share what could be a mantra for the city that hustles harder: “Screw it. Just do it.”
Italicized phrases are defined at The Very Best of British.
