R ants

The one positive in our war on terrorism has been the re-awakening of America's patriotic spirit. Just out of curiosity, I counted the flags I saw on the way home from work one day, both at homes and businesses and attached in various ways to vehicles. The count came to over two hundred. Not bad. I guess it was inevitable the advertising community would jump on this bandwagon after the government urged Americans to keep the economy moving through their consumption, touting it as a patriotic duty. Still, the blatant use of this new patriotism, especially in light of the circumstances which caused it, is galling.

The worst seem to be the car companies. They're so blatant with their message that people should purchase new automobiles as a means of demonstrating their patriotism. One auto manufacturer urges everyone to "keep America rolling" by buying one of their cars right away.

Being a Viet Nam War era child, I haven't seen this sort of tactic before. 'Nam was a divisive action, certainly not the sort of thing Madison Avenue wanted to capitalize on. I wasn't around for the last popular war, World War II, so I don't know if this sort of advertising ploy was used then. I wouldn't be surprised if it was. Still, there's a kind of coarseness evident in the business community demonstrated by their ready willingness to build a marketing campaign on a foundation made up of six thousand civilian corpses and the remnants of the World Trade Center. We've all used the term "crass" to describe the advertising industry at one time or another. Wrapping themselves in the flag to sell another car or candy bar this time leaves that term far behind.

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