The Perils of Patriotism

American Demographics, Sept 1, 2002

Byline: ALISON STEIN WELLNER

On a recent Southwest Airlines flight from Manchester, N.H., to Washington, D.C., patriotic music greeted travelers as they boarded. During the scramble for seats, the chorus to Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the U.S.A." streamed into the cabin. The gray-haired pilot, sporting a broad red, white and blue tie, stood at the door to the cockpit and grinned at each passenger. A number of female passengers adorned their lapels with heart-shaped brooches filled with red, white and blue rhinestones.

In the months since Sept. 11, the "emblem of the land we love" has become more than just something to salute. From donning T-shirts and high-end jewelry with patriotic slogans and insignia to flying flags from car antennas, citizens across the country have been showing their civic pride by wearing the nation's colors. This patriotic surge appears to have affected attitudes as well as accessories: According to a Gallup poll conducted in June 2002, 65 percent of respondents say that they are "extremely" proud to be American, up from 55 percent in January 2001.

Eager to reflect this positive national sentiment, many businesses rushed to include images of patriotic pride in their marketing campaigns. Some even developed products and services for the newly proud pounding hearts of Americans. Sears Portrait Studios, for example, introduced a new line of patriotic portrait greeting cards and backgrounds at its 1,000 stores nationwide in response to its customers' Fourth of July-like levels of interest in patriotic themes, according to spokeswoman Robyn Frankel.

But while Old Glory may have gained a certain amount of new popularity, the rush of warm feelings on the part of Americans toward the nation and its symbols has not translated into a rising tide of consumer support for companies that drape themselves in the flag. The results from two identical American Demographics/Ipsos-Reid polls of 1,000 adults (the first conducted between October 5 and 7, 2001, the second between June 21 and 23, 2002) show no such increase. In fact, consumer sentiment seems to be inching in the opposite direction. In October 2001, 52 percent of Americans said they thought businesses should focus "a great deal" or "quite a bit" on contributing to the nation's patriotic spirit through advertising. By June 2002, that figure had slipped to 50 percent. (Note: The chart, right, presents only those responding that businesses should focus "a great deal" on contributing to the nation's patriotic spirit through ads.)

Consumers today are similarly less likely to say that companies should support the war on terrorism (down 6 percentage points, from 58 percent in 2001) or to say that businesses should focus on developing strategies to ensure that their products or services are never used by terrorists (down 3 percentage points, from 74 percent in 2001).

To be sure, this slight decline still leaves about half of Americans in support of corporate patriotic behavior. But even a slight decline seems counterintuitive. If personal levels of patriotism gained strength over the past year, why wasn't there a parallel increase in support for businesses that affiliate themselves with patriotic word and deed?

Experts offer several possible explanations. One is that this data may be an early indicator that patriotism is starting to return to its natural level after a post-Sept. 11 surge, says Richard J. Stoll, professor of political science and associate dean of social science at Rice University in Houston. "The American people, and people in other countries as well, respond by rallying to their country in the immediate aftermath of a serious situation, whether it be 9/11 or a leader announcing that he is committing troops in a dangerous situation," says Stoll. "However, this does not last forever. It does begin to decay."

Indeed, the nationalistic fervor sparked by 9/11 appears to be decaying at a faster rate among the people least likely to hold patriotic attitudes in the first place. Prior to Sept. 11, young people were the least likely of all age groups to say that they had strong feelings of patriotism. A 1999 Gallup poll found that just 40 percent of people between the ages of 18 and 29 said they were patriotic, compared with 77 percent of people over the age of 55. So it's hardly surprising that in our survey, young Americans show an even sharper decline in support for businesses' patriotic involvement over the past year. In October 2001, 30 percent of people between the ages of 18 and 34 said that businesses should focus "a great deal" on contributing to the spirit of patriotism through advertising. By June 2002, that share fell to 24 percent. Similarly, the percentage of people in this age group who agree that companies should ensure that their products or services are never used by terrorists, and to say that businesses should contribute to the war on terror, also slid by more than 10 percentage points over the past year. Older consumers' support for business patriotism had more stability. (See chart, page 51)