Madison Ave. Pushing Patriotism : Even Beer and Ice Cream Ads Stress the American Dream

Advertising is a living and usually a delight for Larry Lowenthal, but last month he heard a TV commercial that drove him right out of his living room.

“I went into the bathroom and turned on the water spigot just to drown the thing out,” says Lowenthal, who is an advertising consultant in Cooper City, Fla. “The ad was a travesty.”

The commercial was created for the National Dairy Board to promote ice cream. It shows enraptured dessert-lovers spooning down ice cream in a variety of settings, while singing lyrics that praise the dairy product to the tune of “America the Beautiful.”

That’s what bothers Lowenthal, who believes the song is a national treasure that should not have its lyrics altered for the sake of sales. If not all of his fellow practitioners agree, many say that the commercial illustrates how far Madison Avenue will go today to use American themes and symbols.

Indeed, patriotism may be the industry’s hottest theme. In an effort to take advantage of a much-noted resurgence of national feeling, copywriters are splashing American symbols across ads for everything from tuna fish to insurance policies.

Diverse Ideas

They’re using the theme to celebrate such diverse ideas as entrepreneurship, protectionism, economic freedom and trade unionism. In commercials for beer, they’re using it to praise American production skills--even though American brewers face relatively little competition from abroad.

Industry officials say the new use of patriotic themes flowered fully a year ago, in the welling of patriotism that surrounded the 1984 elections and the 1984 summer Olympics.

“The nation has probably been heading back to these values for some time, but those two events seemed to focus public attention on what was happening,” said James Patterson, executive creative director at the J. Walter Thompson ad agency in New York.

Ronald Reagan’s 1984 commercials seemed to be selling hope as well as traditional values with their theme, “It’s morning time again in America.” While political candidates have always wrapped themselves in American symbols, some who craft political commercials say Ronald Reagan’s television spots were unusual in their reliance on such imagery.

Growing Tendency

“I think if you just counted the number of times that the flag was waved in those spots, you’d find they really set a record,” said Frank Greer, of Washington’s Greer & Associates, an ad agency that has created many campaigns for liberal causes. “In the ’72 campaign they wouldn’t have gone that far.”

Advertisers of commercial products soon decided the same ideas would work for them.

Industry officials said a trail-blazer among the new patriotic commercials was a television spot created by Anheuser-Busch for all its brands. First run during the Olympics, the commercial included a scene of work-worn farmers watching the progress of a runner carrying the Olympic torch.

“Here’s to you, America. My best I give to you,” read its script.

Also among the most visible has been Miller Brewing’s “Made the American Way” campaign, an omnipresent, $75-million effort that the company says is intended to celebrate such traditional American values as friendship, home and honesty. One TV spot, called “Handshake,” shows a diverse group of Americans--working-class blacks, farmers, well-heeled football fans--sealing their friendships by shaking hands.

At the same time Miller, which is a division of Philip Morris, wants to avoid sending any message that might be associated with a particular political outlook. “We’re not intending to say anything political, like, ‘the government’s never wrong,’ ” said a spokesman.

Greer & Associates made commercials for a two-week, $2-million campaign hailing the 50th birthday of the United Auto Workers union. The ads depict moments in the union’s difficult early days, describe its contribution to the country’s prosperity, and, as Greer acknowledges, wave the flag with the best of them.

Old-Fashioned Ideal

“We’re definitely trying to associate ourselves with good old American patriotism,” he said. “Liberals have lost some of that to the right wing over the years, and that’s not good.”

Other campaigns try to enlist patriotic sentiment as they warn of the dangers of imported products. The Crafted With Pride Council, a group of textile and apparel makers and unions hurt by imports, is now running commercials that urge consumers to look for the “Made in the USA” labels when they shop for clothing.

C. H. B. Foods of Los Angeles early this year began marketing red, white and blue cans of new American Tuna, which it has promoted in ads noting that it is the only major tuna brand packed in the continental United States.

Photos of huddled immigrants yearning to make money are suddenly popular. They are used in a campaign proclaiming the Wall Street Journal “the daily diary of the American dream,” and again in First Jersey Securities’ television spots for its investment services.

First Jersey’s campaign says America still has the kind of small and mid-sized companies that helped build America and made investors wealthy as they did so. “We didn’t set out to evoke patriotic sentiments,” says company founder and president Robert E. Brennan, who appears in the ads. “But most investors believe what we’re saying, and they perceive it as a patriotic message.”

Among the dozens of others aboard the patriotic-themes bandwagon are Kodak, with its “America” series of commercials, designer Perry Ellis (“looks you’ll pledge allegiance to”) Dodge (“American revolution”), Old Grand-Dad Whiskey (“the spirit of America”), and Crum & Forster (“Insuring the American Dream is a big job”).

Contributions Noted

Such companies as Coca-Cola and Chrysler have advertised their contributions to the effort to restore the Statue of Liberty.

Does the new patriotism sell? Miller, which has sought for years to stem the decline in sales of its High Life brand, has privately told industry analysts that the new campaign has helped slow the sales decline.

Jerry Steinman, publisher of Beer Marketers Insights, a West Nyack, N.Y., newsletter, says sales of the brand were about 10% lower in the first half of 1985 than in the corresponding period of 1984. He notes that the figure represents some improvement, since Miller sales volume declined 17% between 1984 and 1983, to 14.5 million barrels.

Another analyst, Robert Weinberg of the St. Louis consulting firm that bears his name, contends that the expensive campaign should have done far more. “The sad fact is they’ve missed the boat entirely,” he said. “Why should they be praising the American way, anyway, when only 4% of beer sales are imports?”

And some in the industry believe use of the theme has gone too far.

Leonard Matthews, president of the American Assn. of Advertising Agencies, said he was “personally irritated and annoyed” with the dairy board ad, which ran for two weeks in July. Gary Klaff, partner in a Chicago firm that creates music for commercials, was among those who called the organization to complain.

“Sometimes guys working on a commercial just go too far,” he said. “There are things that are sacred, and some of these patriotic symbols shouldn’t be fooled with.”

Tested on Consumers

Joseph Westwater, chief executive of the Washington-based dairy group, said the ads were tested on consumers and on the farmers who make up its board, before they were aired.

“Nobody complained to us about them, and we certainly didn’t intend to be unpatriotic,” he said. “Ice cream is part of America’s heritage.”

Many in the industry believe the risk in such ads doesn’t have to do with a possible negative reaction to exploitation of national symbols. “The real danger is that your ad will get lost in the muddle of all the others who are using the same idea,” said Patterson of J. Walter Thompson. “It seems to me that danger is growing.”