The 1976 Bicentennial

Federal planning of the nation’s bicentennial began in 1966, ten years before America’s 200th birthday. The American Revolution Bicentennial Commission (ARBC), a group of federal officials and academic scholars, was created under the Johnson administration to oversee the nation’s celebration from the federal level. The ARBC quickly became controversial as Americans wanted less federal oversight. The commission was disbanded and replaced by the American Revolution Bicentennial Administration (ARBA) under the Nixon administration (“FG 75 (American Revolution Bicentennial Commission)”). The ARBA had a far more passive approach to the U.S. government’s celebration of the bicentennial. Instead of a massive federal effort, the bicentennial was celebrated locally in cities and towns with federal support. Amidst the political and economic upheaval of decade, the bicentennial served as a moment for Americans to reflect on the past, current state, and future of the country. The social and political context of the 1970s influenced the ways in which the public celebrated American history in the 1976 bicentennial.

Many stores and companies celebrated the nation’s birthday as well. Companies used the bicentennial as a marketing campaign, hoping to profit off of the patriotic fervor. In advertising campaigns, companies highlighted national debates in society about the family, patriotism, and the role of the federal government. Conversely, the American public celebrated America’s 200th birthday through the consumption of bicentennial cultural goods. This economic consumption provided a stage for Americans to accept or repudiate the nation’s history. While there were many actors involved in the bicentennial, this project will focus on how bicentennial marketing campaigns helped shaped historical memory. Bicentennial marketing campaigns were instrumental in reinforcing the palatable historical consensus developed by the ARBA.

Trust in the federal government had been declining since the beginning of the decade. According to the Pew Research Center, public trust in government hovered at 54% in 1970, but had decreased to 33% by the bicentennial (Public Trust in Government: 1958-2019). Several reasons explain the drop, including an economic recession, wage stagflation, the Vietnam War, and Watergate. As compared to the post-war boom of the ‘50s and ‘60s, the ‘70s economy took a turn for the worse. Unemployment was at 7.5% in 1975 and inflation had risen to 12.4% (Gordon, 112). Many Americans no longer felt economically secure and thus had lower trust in government and society. Furthermore, Americans questioned government leadership constantly during the Vietnam War. In an article published in the New York Times in 1975, the author questions why the U.S. government spent so much money, time, and American lives on the Vietnam War. The article displays the general tone of Americans at the time — they did not understand how the reasons for the war outweighed the costs and felt frustrated with the government (“U.S. Spent $141‐Billion In Vietnam in 14 Years”). To add insult to injury, the American public had just endured the resignation of President Richard Nixon in the Watergate scandal in 1974, just two years before the nation was set to celebrate its 200th birthday. Needless to say, Americans felt deeply distrustful of their government. Overall, Americans “began to call for the decentralization of power and to look to the private sector for solutions to social and economic troubles” (Gordon, 5). To Americans, the federal government was in no position to celebrate the triumph of American government. Instead, consumerism and private company marketing efforts offered one avenue through which Americans could celebrate the bicentennial.

While the government debated the role of economic consumption in historical remembrance, private commercialization of the bicentennial could not be stopped. From the early stages of the bicentennial planning, private companies saw the bicentennial as a marketing opportunity. However, the federal government was cautious to allow private interests to profit off of a federally organized celebration. In 1972, the New York Times reported that the ARBC debated whether to allow the official logo of the bicentennial to be used in marketing campaigns or if it should be used solely by the federal government (Sloane, 57). The debate over the logo exemplified a far larger discussion about whether to allow private companies to market and commercialize the bicentennial (Gordon, 37). Many Americans supported a more diffuse celebration that limited the role of the federal government and included a commercialization of the bicentennial. As a result, the ARBC was replaced with the ARBA, a more decentralized organization. Private businesses were thus given a far larger role in orchestrating the bicentennial. However, the New York Times article noted as early as 1972 that, regardless of the logo decision, companies were “working on bicentennial related campaigns of all types without formal recognition of the commission” (Sloane, 57).While the government ultimately gave up control of the bicentennial, plans for massive marketing efforts were already underway.

Businesses sought to market the bicentennial by enforcing the notion that commerce and economic consumption were part of the American identity. In celebration of America’s 200th birthday, McDonalds released a red, white, and blue shake, Zippo sold an American flag lighter, and Poulan sold a bicentennial special limited edition “Poulan 76” chainsaw in red, white and blue ("17 vintage ads that prove everything was patriotic in the summer of '76"). The list of bicentennial consumer goods went on and on. A 1975 article in Time Magazine wrote, “[l]ike a sudden swarm of 200 year old locusts, commemorative kitsch is appearing everywhere: plates, mugs and glasses decaled with an eagle of the likeness of George Washington or John Adams or the flag or Archibald Willard’s familiar Revolutionary fife and drum trio” (“Bucks from the Bicentennial”). While some companies had more robust revolutionary war marketing campaigns, many simply sold consumer products with patriotic colors. Tammy Gordon, historian on the bicentennial, argues that businesses “took hold of the opportunity the bicentennial presented to re-center commerce as a fundamental feature of American identity” (Gordon, 47). Furthermore, companies distilled the revolutionary war as a war for economic independence from the British, thus buying cultural kitsch was an act of economic independence in celebration of the bicentennial (Gordon, 47). In essence, businesses convinced consumers that in order to be a patriotic American, one must purchase an American flag lighter or a red, white, and blue chainsaw.

Marita Sturken, a visual communications scholar, writes of the role of consumer goods in historical memory. She argues that seemingly insignificant cultural objects, like bicentennial kitsch, “proscribe particular emotional responses and promise to make consumers feel better” (Sturken, 76). They “are also memory objects that participate in a set of narratives about…[the nation.] “Thus, such objects of memorialization encourage particular kinds of political acquiescence” (Sturken, 76). Her theory allows us a platform to analyze the ways in which bicentennial kitsch, and accompanying marketing campaigns, helped enforce specific notions of historical memory.

As aforementioned, the bicentennial occurred at a moment of government disillusionment from the trauma of the decade. Natasha Zaretsky further argues that the social movements of the 1960s and ‘70s complicated historical narratives of the greatness of the American democracy. American history could not simply be packaged as the creation of a free, democractic society. The women’s liberation movement, the Civil Rights Movement, and other social movements called attention to female disenfrachsiment, slavery, and racial and social inequality (Zaretsky, 146). Tammy Gordon notes that markets and advertiser anticipated that these vocal social groups would find a traditional bicentennial celebration less palatable. Advertisers “were especially concerned about ‘the effect such Americana-related themes [would] have on three major consumer groups: Blacks, youths, and urban shoppers, where market research has demonstrated an increase in uneasiness, skepticism, and cynicism’ ” (Gordon, 48). The ARBA knew that bicentennial celebrations would need to include these new social groups in the history of the United States (Zaretsky, 146-147). Bicentennial planners tackled “questions of who would be represented, how they would be represented, and how the nation’s entire history would be represented” by decentralizing the celebration of the Bicentennial, which de-emphasized role of the federal government (Zaretsky, 147). Instead, planners focused on local, cultural pluralism that celebrated diversity and people’s differences (Zaretsky, 148). Advertisers were conscious of the previous social movements and the focus on cultural pluralism, and thus designed marketing campaigns accordingly.

Bicentennial marketing underscored that the bicentennial was to be celebrated in a patriotic, local fashion, which de-emphasized the current state of the country. In a 1976 commercial by Coca Cola, as part of the “Coke Adds Life” campaign, Coca Cola stressed themes of local celebration and patriotism. The advertisement begins with Paul Revere and Betsy Ross drinking a bottle of Coke and then shows scenes of a local bicentennial parade. Matched to cheery music, it seems as though the whole town has come together to celebrate the bicentennial in an Americana-fashion. The advertisement also highlighted traditional American history figures, including Paul Revere, Betsy Ross, and the founding fathers. The 1976 commercial was part of the broader “Coke Adds Life” campaign which aimed to show Americans enjoying Coke in their daily activities (Mooney). By equating the bicentennial celebration with daily life, it reaffirmed patriotism’s role in American daily life. America, as pictured in the advertisement, did not face the social, political, or economic upheaval of the 1970s. In the Coca Cola advertisement, Americans had much to celebrate.

Additionally, companies replicated efforts by the ARBA to emphasize individual family units. Zarestky argues that the ARBA framed the bicentennial as a family celebration, which provided an easily digestible way to celebrate the diversity of the nation. “The family functioned as a simultaneous (and thus indispensable) symbol of difference and unity — difference because every group had its own cultural paraphernalia adhering to the family, unity because each group’s attachment to family related themes (roots, tradition, culture) linked one group to another” (Zaretsky, 145). The ARBA encouraged Americans to celebrate the bicentennial with their families by hosting family reunions and collecting family histories. In the bicentennial, the family served as a symbol of “national rebirth. The ability to claim a concrete identity… was crucial to the resurgence of nationalism anticipated by the Bicentennial” (Zaretsky, 155). The emphasis on family provided a way to celebrate racial and social differences, highlighted in the social movements of the ‘60s, while simultaneously encouraging familial unity and identity.

Advertisements replicated these family values. The Winchester Repeating Arms Company, a gun manufacturer, released a 1976 advertisement for the Winchester Bicentennial ‘76, with the tagline “someday your son will pass it on to his son” and a picture of a smiling father and son ("17 vintage ads that prove everything was patriotic in the summer of '76"). Sears, a department store, released an advertisement of a smiling family at the birthplace of John Adams to advertise their 1976 summer clothing line ("17 vintage ads that prove everything was patriotic in the summer of '76"). Both ads underscored that the bicentennial celebration was a family experience. These ads exemplify the ARBA’s overall initiative to package the family as a symbol of patriotic identity and Americanism.

Finally, marketers attempted to navigate contentious areas in America’s history by advertising different cultural kitsch to different groups of people. The ARBA was particularly concerned with how to discuss America’s history of racial inequality, given that the Civil Rights Movement had brought racial injustices to the foreground of American consciousness. In the early 1970s, NAACP leaders pressured the ARBA to address how the bicentennial “could possibly account for two hundred years of racial discrimination” (Zaretsky, 150). While the ARBA made a conscious effort to include African Americans and other minority groups in the planning of the bicentennial, their efforts largely failed to address issues of equality and freedom in broader celebrations (Zaretsky, 153-154). Instead, the main goal of the ARBA was to package the bicentennial as a celebration of “cultural pluralism,” an attempt to “defuse the racial politics surrounding the commemoration” (Zaretsky, 152). This effort celebrated individual, cultural, and racial differences between various American groups, but gave little mention to how these groups were historically treated overtime.

Advertisers made some attempts to address the role of minority groups in American history, yet most offered a romanticized or distilled version of history. Specifically, advertisers marketed bicentennial cultural products to African Americans, yet did not address structural inequality or questions of racial freedom that African Americans had vocalized. For example, Jim Beam, a bourbon whiskey company, sold a line of bicentennial bottles, including one featuring Crispus Atticus, a black enslaved person and the first person killed in the revolutionary war. The Crispus Atticus bottle was marketed towards black Americans and was advertised in the pages of Ebony magazine (Ebony, 22).

American Airlines ran several advertisements encouraging Americans to travel to various historical sites and celebrations, hoping to capitalize on the anticipated travel boom. Most of the advertisements in the overall campaign focused on Paul Revere ("17 vintage ads that prove everything was patriotic in the summer of '76"), but the American Airlines advertisements in Ebony also featured Crispus Atticus and Fredrick Douglass, a famous American abolitionist (Ebony, 25). American Airlines made a conscious effort to include African Americans in their marketing efforts and to market these advertisements to African Americans. However, both of these advertisements did little to address the history of racism or structural inequality that African Americans grappled with during the bicentennial celebrations.

Although 1970s magazines and articles claim that the bicentennial commercialization craze was successful, many historians argue that it was actually a flop. According to an article in Broadcasting, an entertainment trade magazine, the Department of Commerce reported a surge advertising revenue from radio and TV in 1976. The article points to the bicentennial, the Olympics, and the presidential election as three major moments in 1976 that account for the increase in revenue (“Commerce sees revenue, profit increases in area of 11% in 1977”). Additionally, an article in the New York Times suggests there was, in part, a craze for bicentennial kitsch. A store manager was quoted saying, “‘We had these ties and shirts with the American flag and 76,’ he said, ‘The ties we couldn’t sell fast enough. A man would come in and buy a tie, and then he’d come back and buy a dozen more. One man bought 10 dozen…But the shirts. Nothing. We tried to sell them first for $7.90. No good. Bicentennial came and went” (Schumach). The article underscores, however, that while some products were widely popular, it was difficult to predict bicentennial consumer tastes. Gordon argues that bicentennial merchandise did not sell as well as expected. Many of the companies created to sell specific bicentennial merchandise went bankrupt and hotels reported similar revenue rates to 1975, proving the tourism and merchandising industries did not do as well as expected (Gordon, 111-112). Instead, Gordon argues that Americans saw purchasing bicentennial goods as one way, of many, to celebrate the nation’s birthday. Some were far more interested in community projects of the bicentennial, such as local parades or historic preservations. Gordon also argues that the recession deterred individuals from spending money on consumer goods (Gordon, 112). People simply did not have the money to spend on collectable items. In the bicentennial craze, magazines and newspapers reported on the commercial success of the fad, but in reality historians argue it was one of many ways that Americans engaged with the bicentennial.

The commercialization of the bicentennial was a strong force in creating and reinforcing historical narratives. Bicentennial marketing campaigns and cultural kitsch enforced an ideology that economic consumption was an American ideal. Often advertisers replicated similar themes that were stressed by the ARBA, such as a focus on local celebrations, individual families, and cultural pluralism. Advertisers made some attempts to address the history of people of color within advertisements, but like the ARBA their attempts fell short to address deeper historical challenges of slavery or racial inequality. In the decades following the bicentennial, historians have argued that the bicentennial commercialization was not as successful as originally anticipated. While bicentennial marketing efforts helped reinforce the palatable historical narrative developed by the ARBA, it is clear that Americans used and consumed cultural goods, that reinforced a palatable historical memory, on their own terms.

Secondary Sources: 

"FG 75 (American Revolution Bicentennial Commission) (White House Central Files: Subject Files)." Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum., https://www.nixonlibrary.gov/index.php/finding-aids/fg-75-american-revolution-bicentennial-commission-white-house-central-files-subject.

Gordon, Tammy. The spirit of 1976: Commerce, community, and the politics of commemoration. University of Massachusetts Press, 2013.

Sturken, Marita. "Memory, consumerism and media: Reflections on the emergence of the field." Memory Studies 1, no. 1 (2008): 73-78.

Zaretsky, Natasha. No direction home: The American family and the fear of national decline, 1968-1980. Univ of North Carolina Press, 2010.

Primary Sources:

"Bucks from the Bicentennial." 1975a.Time Magazine.

"Commerce Sees Revenue, Profit Increases in Area of 11% in 1977 " 1977.Broadcasting, Feb 21, 63.

"Public Trust in Government: 1958-2019." Pew Research Center., last modified April 11, https://www.people-press.org/2019/04/11/public-trust-in-government-1958-2019/.

"U.S. Spent $141‐Billion in Vietnam in 14 Years." 1975b.The New York Times, May 1,. https://www.nytimes.com/1975/05/01/archives/us-spent-141billion-in-vietnam-in-14-years.html

AmericanThrowback. “1976 Coca-Cola Commercial ’Bicentennial.’” Filmed 1976. Youtube video, 1:32. Posted [Sep 19, 2012]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWk8e0xUu7w&feature=emb_title

Ebony Magazine. June 1976, 22-25

MeTV Staff. "17 Vintage Ads that Prove Everything was Patriotic in the Summer of '76." MeTV., last modified May 20, https://www.metv.com/stories/17-vintage-ads-that-prove-everything-was-patriotic-in-the-summer-of-76.

Mooney, Phil. "Coke Adds Life to ... Everything!" Coca Cola Company., last modified Feb 4, https://www.coca-colacompany.com/stories/2009/02/coke-adds-life-to-everything.

Schumach, Murray. 1976. "About New York: The Bicentennial Question Mark for Businesses." The New York Times, Sep 8, 43.

Sloan, Leonard. 1972. "The Symbol of '76." ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The New York Times, Aug 17, 57.

Title image 

 https://historycollection.co/26-photographs-americas-1976-bicentennial-celebration/ 

Vietnam war

 http://michiganintheworld.history.lsa.umich.edu/antivietnamwar/ 

Nixon Resigns

 https://pickingatopic.weebly.com/watergate-scandal.html 

1976 Bicentennial Logo

 https://www.pinterest.com/pin/396316835928909260/?lp=true 

1976 Advertisements: see citation above "17 Vintage Ads that Prove Everything was Patriotic in the Summer of '76.

Ebony Advertisements: see citation above "Ebony Magazine"

Spirit of 76 

 http://zettasaprons.blogspot.com/2014/07/summer-of-76-and-bicentennial-baby.html