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| Bill Huey |
So far in the 2024 Paris Olympics, the American athletes have performed brilliantly and made us proud.
But there is nothing to be proud about in their treatment of the American flag. As with previous Summer and Winter games, Old Glory is being used as a cape or a drape in the rain, dragged on the ground, and flapped around by spectators like a limp rally flag, which it clearly is not. They think they are being patriotic, but really they are breaking the law.
U.S. cyclist and Harvard grad Kristen Faulkner was even seen lying atop the flag on the ground following her gold medal win Sunday. NBC commentators had nothing to say about it.
The U.S. Flag Code, which was passed by Congress in 1942 but really dates to the Civil War, codifies the way the flag of the United States is to be displayed and used. Among other things, it is not to be worn as clothing, used as a drape, or covering for anything except a veteran’s coffin, or turned into promotional junk such as mugs, golf bags, purses, or saddle blankets for horses—all of which I have seen.
The USOPC needs to familiarize itself with the U. S. Flag Code (available from the Department of Veterans Affairs or the American Legion) and instruct all its athletes, coaches, and other personnel in public roles to adhere strictly to its guidelines. After all, it is a federal law, and I am certain the USOPC doesn’t want its members to violate federal law.
The same goes for media, who are raking in hundreds of millions on sporting events like the Olympics.
If you are charged with planning or running an event or promotion that involves the Stars and Bars, make sure the flag is properly displayed (hung horizontally with the field of stars to the viewer’s left, NEVER vertically or carried flat) and that everyone who is given a flag to wave treats it with respect. It is the little things that add up to a strong and virtuous nation.
As Michael Green, writing in Texas A & M Today, put it, “Behind all these pedantic rules lies a deep purpose that the flag code is trying to protect. Nations are nothing more than a fragile collective idea. Flags are sometimes the only tangible symbol of that idea and the only representation of that collective identity and the collective self.”
That was five years ago, but it seems even more true today.
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Bill Huey is president of Strategic Communications and the author of "Advertising's Double Helix: A Proposed New Process Model," Journal of Advertising Research, May/June 1999. His article about advertising effects has been cited in books and academic papers around the world.
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