It’s Monday, I’m Nithya Sudhir. I collect words, chase patterns, and write about whatever makes me curious.
Stars, Stripes, and Shopping: The Psychology of Patriotic Marketing
In 1976, Coca-Cola released a 30-second TV ad to mark America's 200th birthday. It opened on a parade. Paul Revere and Betsy Ross sipping Cokes. Marching bands, children in red-white-and-blue, the whole thing.
That commercial went viral again this May, 50 year later, sparking nostalgia for a more patriotic American culture.
With America turning 250 this Saturday, brands are cashing in on the moment. But do consumers actually buy it and what does that mean for DTC brands?
It’s Monday, let’s get into it.
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Brands Going Red, White, and Blue
According to Capital One Shopping, Americans spent $8.9 billion on food and $3.7 billion on alcohol for July 4th in 2025.
And with 87% of consumers plan to celebrate the Fourth of July again in 2026, brands have been preparing for months.
Coca-Cola launched a full campaign called "Drink in America", reviving its 1971 "Hilltop" ad concept with state-by-state collectible mini cans and murals painted by local artists in all 50 states.
The Jeep brand, which consistently rates as the most patriotic, is celebrating the occasion with a tie-in with Marvel and the most iconic superhero in the franchise: Captain America.
Jeep and Marvel unite to celebrate 85 years of freedom and adventure in Jeep Wrangler America250 edition marketing campaign
This is patriotic marketing. It’s when a brand ties its identity or a campaign to national symbols, values, or moments. Flags, origin stories, limited-edition packaging, "Made in America" claims.
Why Patriotism Sells (And When It Doesn't)
There is a concept in consumer psychology called symbolic consumption. It describes the behavior of buying things not for what they do, but for what they mean. When you buy the America 250 tortilla chip, you are not just buying a snack, but making a small, low-stakes statement about who you are and what you belong to.
Then there is the Social Identity Theory, which explains that people define part of their self-concept through the groups they belong to. Not just define, but they also actively protect and signal those affiliations. And national identity is one of the most powerful of those groups.
Research on patriotic advertising and consumer behavior confirms that emotional connection to national symbols like freedom, sovereignty, and cultural identity, meaningfully predicts purchase intent. For a significant portion of consumers, the flag on the packaging is the reason they buy that product.
And the most powerful driver is nostalgia, an inescapable feature of the 2020s. It is the psychological mechanism that makes consumers feel connected to a shared past, lowering skepticism and increasing warmth toward a brand. The Coca-Cola 1976 commercial went viral precisely because it activated collective nostalgia for a version of American identity that felt simpler and less divided.
Product patriotism is what happens when all these forces combine in a purchasing context.
But here’s the twist.
A study on product patriotism found that consumers distinguish between brands that embody national identity and brands that borrow it.
For example, brands at the top of the patriotic perception index — Jeep, Coca-Cola, Disney — built that association over decades. Jeep went into military production in 1941. Coca-Cola supplied troops in World War II. Disney has been telling American stories for over a century.
For patriotic marketing to work, a brand needs authenticity.
A flag on a box from a brand with no American story is not symbolic consumption. It is decoration. And consumers know the difference.
Which brings us to two DTC brands that are doing it right.
Goldbelly: The Food That Made America
Goldbelly was founded in 2013 by Joe Ariel with a simple premise: ship iconic regional American food anywhere in the country.
Over a decade, they partnered with more than 1,000 restaurants, pitmasters, bakeries, and regional artisans across all 50 states.
For America 250, Goldbelly became the Official Marketplace of Taste of America250, the official food program of the nation's 250th anniversary. And, Joe Ariel was named Official Food Curator.
Their campaign, "250 Dishes That Made America", is a yearlong storytelling project bringing together chefs, writers, and cultural voices to define the canon of American cuisine; the first-ever Official State Dish Registry inviting all 50 states to nominate their defining dish; and America's Official 250th Birthday Cake, unveiled ahead of July 4.
"Food is the last thing in America that everybody agrees on. Nobody checks your politics at the table."
Xochitl: The Chip With a Founding Story
Xochitl (pronounced "so-cheel") makes tortilla chips and salsa. It was founded in 1995 in Irving, Texas by Carlos Salinas, a Mexican-American immigrant who brought his mother's family recipes from Mexico and spent five years developing the thin, crispy white corn tortilla chip that became his signature product.
Today Xochitl is America's largest independent brand of corn tortilla chips, sold at Whole Foods, Sprouts, and major retailers nationwide.
For America 250, Xochitl became an official America250 partner.
They released red, white, and blue patriotic chips made only with natural dyes and avocado oil.
They launched a campaign with Jimmy Fallon teaching people how to pronounce the brand name.
Their story: a boy who arrived in America with his mother's recipes and built something from them, is what everyone relates to.
How to Make a Cultural Moment Work for Your Brand
Most DTC brands will not have an official America250 partnership or a 30-year founding story tied to the immigrant experience. That is fine. The lesson from Goldbelly and Xochitl is not about scale or history. It is about the relationship between your brand story and the cultural moment you want to enter.
Ask first: do you have a right to this moment?
Ask yourself if there is a real, honest connection between what your brand stands for and what the moment represents. If you cannot articulate that connection in one sentence, it is not your moment.
Surface something true rather than invent something new.
Brands that earn cultural moments use the occasion to amplify something that is already there, maybe a founder story, a regional origin, a community they have served for years. Anything that isn’t reverse engineered for the event.
Make your customer a participant, not an audience.
The campaigns that travel furthest are the ones that give people something to do — nominate, share, contribute, debate.
Think past July 4th.
What association do you want to be left with once the moment passes? Plan for that, not just for the moment itself.
Most Importantly, Know the Law.
In March 2026, President Trump signed Executive Order 14392, directing the FTC to prioritize enforcement of "Made in USA" claims.
In April, the FTC settled three cases against companies selling patriotic products — including a brand that sold American flags manufactured in China while claiming they were handmade by US combat veterans.
Under the FTC's Made in USA Labeling Rule, an unqualified "Made in USA" claim requires final assembly and virtually all components to be domestic. Even displaying an American flag on your packaging can constitute an implied origin claim.
The largest penalty in a MUSA case to date is $625,000. If you are running any patriotic campaign right now, this compliance guide is worth reading before you publish.
America's population of 335 million people makes this one of the largest cultural moments any brand will ever have access to. 62% of Americans say the 250th anniversary is personally important to them. That is not a small opportunity.
And precisely because the opportunity is this big, it tempts brands into shortcuts. Manufactured stories, borrowed meaning, a flag where there is no foundation can harm your brand. Consumers feel that. They always do.
The brands that will be remembered after this Sunday are not the ones that moved the most limited-edition inventory. They are the ones that found something real, said it honestly, and let people connect to it.
That is what marketing has always been, underneath all of it. Not the moment. The bond.
I hope you enjoyed today’s issue. I’m always trying to bring something new and interesting to you, and what makes it even better for me is to know what you want to read next!
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See you next Monday!
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See you next week,
Nithya
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