new pet peeve: patriotism used in commercials to hawk goods

[J. Roger]

I live near the border and see both "Americanism" and "Canadianism" used to sell everything from beer, trucks, even donuts!

It's no doubt very effective, but it's just sooooooo lazy, and borderline disrespectful.



Ahhh, maybe the lack of sun is just making me cranky

 

[Hunter]

I live near the border and see both "Americanism" and "Canadianism" used to sell everything from beer, trucks, even donuts!

It's no doubt very effective, but it's just sooooooo lazy, and borderline disrespectful.



Ahhh, maybe the lack of sun is just making me cranky

+1 I agree with you, I hate the new Tim Horton's radio ad about how sorry Canadians are about being good at stuff, then tells us how good the coffee is... grinds my gears. I have buddies in the US that get the same thing, with people telling them only only real Americans would use whatever product because "AMERICA". Marketing departments that try to shoehorn patriotism are as bad if not worse than the ones that try to sell stuff by being proud of the consumers ignorance.

 

[John Von Wuggz]

I don't mind it being used in sales because, well, you know…one is born every minute. Whenever I see it I'm simply reminded how much smarter I am than the general public. However, I don't like seeing it present in more serious situations.

 

[jb4647]

Freak'n Canadians...,

 

[Hunter]

Freak'n Canadians...,

You called?

 

[mretzloff]

I am sure "real" Americans and "real" Canadians rarely use those products.

 

[Saxman11290]

But wait, hasn't consumerism/capitalism been the same thing as patriotism since the 1980s?

 

[professorchaos]

I'm ambivalent. Using patriotism to subjectively convey an association with a product is hardly surprising. Tiresome, surely. Advertising, by its very nature, attempts manipulate consumers to drive sales.

 

[Doc4]

Look, how many of us ... if presented with two identical products at the same price ... would prefer to buy the one made locally instead of the one made overseas in one of the many countries south of Mongolia and north of Viet Nam? Heck, we'd rather buy the identical product made locally rather than the one made in some other first-world country in the same high-paying, unionised conditions.

"Support the local guys" is a rational enough motivation, it's just that advertisers are playing it up for all it's worth ... and sometimes one is left to wonder just how "local" the goods one is buying or the company from which one is buying them really is.

 

[Kostas1]

Just to be fair, and I really don't want to set off a firestorm or derail this thread, but "real" is up for interpretation.

Now, if you want to say "first", that's a different story. In all fairness, war/conquest has been an acceptable method for determining land rights for the last 30-40k years. Otherwise, we Homo Sapiens need to give back most of the Earth to Neanderthals.

I am sure "real" Americans and "real" Canadians rarely use those products.

 

[Malakas1981]

I'm staying out of this for once

 

[mretzloff]

Just to be fair, and I really don't want to set off a firestorm or derail this thread, but "real" is up for interpretation.

Now, if you want to say "first", that's a different story. In all fairness, war/conquest has been an acceptable method for determining land rights for the last 30-40k years. Otherwise, we Homo Sapiens need to give back most of the Earth to Neanderthals.

I understand and did not mean that as a way to start anything. I just thought it was ironic/amusing

 

[Hunter]

Look, how many of us ... if presented with two identical products at the same price ... would prefer to buy the one made locally instead of the one made overseas in one of the many countries south of Mongolia and north of Viet Nam? Heck, we'd rather buy the identical product made locally rather than the one made in some other first-world country in the same high-paying, unionised conditions.

"Support the local guys" is a rational enough motivation, it's just that advertisers are playing it up for all it's worth ... and sometimes one is left to wonder just how "local" the goods one is buying or the company from which one is buying them really is.

I'm always up for supporting the local guy, namely restaurants and breweries.

 

[garyg]

Part of Canada is south of here in the Motown .. so I get CBC for most of the Wings games. A different dynamic for sure with the commercials, blessedly less from the Canucks' stations .. not a big fan of the marketing types, but hey, without them we'd never had the Edsel, or New Coke, or throwback/up uniforms ..

Guess it depends on the huckster, if it is a Canadian beer brewed with Canadian ingredients, go for it. If it is ChinaMart claiming pride that some of their junk has some parts from and has been obviously shipped through the USA I'll pass

 

[Go West Young Man]

I've got no problem with an ad that says "proudly made in <insert country>", but I agree with the OP that there's too many commercials these days that put a truck or a gas grill over an image of a waving flag with patriotic music swelling the background. That's tacky.

 

[luvmysuper]

I am sure "real" Americans and "real" Canadians rarely use those products.

I'm as real an American as anyone.
Like the "Native Americans" I too was born in this country. Neither the Native American or the millions of other babies born on US Soil since the United States was formed had any choice whatsoever about where we were born.
Ethnicity does not make one an American.

I tend to ignore the overtly flag waving commercials, though they don't particularly bother me.
I realize that ad agencies have been hired to do what they do - sell a product.
They're going to use whatever means they can within legal boundaries to do so.

 

[Doc4]

One of the few examples that I liked and that went over well in general was this one for Canadian beer a few years ago.

Hey, the beer is actually called "Canadian" ... go figure. I suspect it's the only beer in the world with a trade mark name that is just identifying its nationality. But the advert did well mostly because it was taking a shot at all the stereotypes of Canadians that we get from abroad (mostly from the States.)

 

[mretzloff]

Ethnicity does not make one an American.

I agree. That is what I meant. You, a Native American, and I share a common nationality, but we do not share the same ethnicity.

 

[GuanYu]

Patriotism is stupid. We live in a world arena. Of course we want the country we live in to succeed and prosper, but that shouldn't mean we despise other cultures/countries for trying too.
&#8220;I am not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world.&#8221; --Socrates

 

[Shave A Buck]

I do not agree with the above, I am sorry. We should all be proud of our respective countries and heritage.

We do not live in a world arena.

There is North America and Europe doing the "right" thing while the rest of the world seems to do whats best for them and their countries. Until the rest of the world makes the same sacrafices as we have made, and plays by the "world" rules then perhaps so, but I think it is foolish to believe we are there yet. And I am not so happy to see Americans struggle while we work on bringing the standard of living up in the rest of the world at our esxpense.

Making sure your country and its people come first does not mean we despise other cultures or are selfish. Any goverments first obligation should be to the people it represents.