Patriotism as a marketing ploy is something we haven’t seen since the Bush years, but it appears to be making a comeback. We’ve got two local ads here in Nashville that exploit patriotism, and I’m trying to decide which is worse: Marathon Petroleum’s super-serious country song, “Full Tank of Freedom,” or the campy Eagle Steve character brought to us from U.S. Pest Protection.
Check out Marathon’s “Full Tank of Freedom”:
Can you say cheesy? Wouldn’t “freedom” mean not having to buy any gas in the first place? And considering how we’ve gone to war in the Middle East to secure that supply of “freedom”, this just strikes me as completely tone deaf. All I can say is, this song makes me glad I drive an electric car.
Eagle Steve, on the other hand, is pure, undiluted camp:
Cheesy, yes, but in a self-aware, Colbert Report sort of way. My favorite part is when the man shakes hands (wings?) with the eagle.
Any super cheesy local ads in your town?
Southern Beale 
If you have cinch bugs, chiggers, palmetto bugs or Medfl,ies, then the terrerists haz already WUN!
German cockroaches are okay, though, ‘cuz thy’e from a good GODLOVIN’, WHITE country!!
Don’t even get them started on those “Africanized bees.” LOL
…about the only response I can think of is
No cheesy commercials for me. I live in the SF Bay Area. Jackie Spears is going to win. Kamala Harris is going to win, and Hillary is going to win. Even California Republicans are smart enough to not waste money on TV ads.
Many a bum show has been saved by the flag. George M. Cohan
It’s like declaring yourself saved by being reborn or wearing a cross around your neck as cheap faith. That those who push this kind of patriotism are usually not big fans of democracy and hate the government when it is democratic or when it turns out to require revenue shows that it’s merely an appeal to craven conformism. I’ll believe it when they promote the United States living up to its stated ideals of equal justice under law for everyone. I’m not waiting up in anxious expectation.