In the United States its Veteran’s Day today. America is a fairly patriotic country but Barry Petchesky wrote that at times this patriotism can be a little artificial:

• Sporting events sometimes have giant American flags, the singing of the national anthem, or even the depiction of military personnel on stadium screens for a round of applause.
• It turns out that the Department of Defense actually pays for these activities.
• They reason that it’s an effective advertisement that drums up military recruitment.
• The Atlanta Falcons made close to a million dollars by agreeing to run these promos.
• There’s been a backlash to the stealth advertizing and the defense establishment intends to stay away from them going forwards.
• The NFL, for its part, says that it intends to return all of the money it made from the patriotic displays.

Read more here.

Source: Deadspin