Psychology
Belonging
We favour people we see as one of us, and we choose brands that show which group we are part of: a team, a town, a nation, a tribe.
2020s
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2022Backup Ukraine
Lets people scan their own country's statues, churches and monuments on their phones, so saving them becomes an act of loyalty to the nation.
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2022World Cup Delivery
Lets about six million users follow the trophy home on the app at the moment of victory, so the brand joined a celebration the whole country shared.
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2022Bring Home the Bud
Promising the stranded beer to whichever nation won the World Cup let every fan cheer for their own country to bring home the Buds.
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2020Smaht Pahk
Has Chris Evans, Rachel Dratch and John Krasinski heckle in Boston accents on a South End street, a local in-joke that let viewers feel like insiders.
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2020You Can't Stop Us
Splices 36 pairs of elite and everyday athletes into single moving bodies and speaks of 'us', giving viewers in a fractious summer one team they could all join.
2010s
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2019True Name
Launches during WorldPride and Stonewall's 50th anniversary with rainbow street signs in the West Village, so transgender and non-binary customers see a brand standing with their community.
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2018The Legend of Big John
Turns a colonial landing on its head, with a village hero greeting startled Dutchmen in South African slang, a joke that rewards viewers who share his voice and history.
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2018Dream Crazy
Makes a quarterback who knelt during the anthem its face, and amid burned shoes and boycott calls, buying Nike became a way to show which camp you were in.
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2018Keeping Fortnite Fresh
Plays the game for nine hours instead of advertising in it, so gamers treat Wendy's as one of their own rather than an intruder.
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2018Nothing Beats a Londoner
Puts 258 young people from Dalston, Peckham and Brixton at the centre under the line nothing beats a Londoner, so city kids felt their own tribe being championed.
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2017The Talk
Drawn from Black families' lived experience under the My Black Is Beautiful name, it shows Black viewers a brand standing with them on something they know first-hand.
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2017Did You Mean MailChimp?
Spins out of the 'MailKimp' stumble in its Serial podcast ad, so listeners who caught the reference felt like insiders sharing a private joke with the brand.
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2017Pass the Heinz
Runs the Mad Men pitch a fictional client dismissed, co-credited to Don Draper's fictional agency, an in-joke that fans of the show loved being part of.
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2017Trash Isles
Hands out passports, a flag and citizenship of the Trash Isles, so signing up felt like joining a nation of people who cared about ocean plastic.
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2016Super Bowl Babies Choir
Puts real fans born after their parents' teams won the title in team-coloured robes, so supporters see their club woven into family life itself.
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2016The DNA Journey
Asks people which nations they dislike, then traces their own ancestry to those places, so the line between us and them blurs and viewers feel part of one family.
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2014It's Beautiful
Passes a patriotic anthem through seven languages over cowboy hats, hijabs and two dads, telling many Americans the song was theirs too, and stirring those who wanted English only.
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2014GAYTMs
Rainbow receipts reading 'Cash out and proud' put the bank openly on the community's side at Mardi Gras, and gave customers a way to show their own pride.
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2013Immortal Fans
Lets supporters keep cheering for their club even after death, and loyalty to the team proved strong enough to turn 51,000 fans into donors.
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2012Halftime in America
Speaks to a hurting country as one team at halftime, so viewers out of work or worried heard a call to pull together, with the carmaker standing among them.
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2011Cómicos
Gathers Spain's comedians around a checked tablecloth to defend the country's way of enjoying life, so viewers felt part of a nation refusing to give in to gloom.
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2011Legend ("Ghost Chips")
Speaks the way young Māori men talk among their mates at a house party, so its lines were taken up as their own and passed into everyday Kiwi speech.
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2011Born of Fire ("Imported from Detroit")
Ends on 'This is the Motor City. And this is what we do,' a line of civic pride that people took up as their own rallying cry beyond the brand.
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2011Be the Coach
Builds the vote around a derby between Soweto rivals Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates, so buying the beer became a way for supporters to back their own side.
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2010Write the Future
Shows one touch of the ball sending a player to national glory or disgrace, tapping the tribal hopes and dreads that fans carry into every World Cup.
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2010Dutch Dress
Sold as the Dutch Dress and worn to the Netherlands v Denmark match, it let fans show which side they were on and carried Bavaria's story with them.
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Shop Small.American Express2010
Small Business Saturday
Badges and posters handed to shopkeepers turned 'Shop Small' into a shared local cause, letting shoppers show they stand with their own town's businesses.
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2010The American Takeover
Threatens a familiar national symbol in front of a generation cool on patriotism, and their protests showed how much being Romanian still mattered to them.
2000s
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2009Walk-In Fridge
Sets the women's shrieks over a walk-in closet against the men's louder ones over a fridge full of beer, and each side laughed in recognition of its own camp.
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2009Chalkbot
Lets people anywhere join the old fan custom of painting messages for riders on the road, so a global audience felt part of the roadside crowd.
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2009Teletransporter
Shares a laddish wink about girlfriends phoning mid-drink, so Andes comes across as one of the lads, in on the same small conspiracy.
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2008The Great Schlep
Speaks directly to young Jews and signs them up as 'schleppers', so talking round their grandparents became a mission shared with their own community.
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2008Hope
Supporters downloaded and fly-posted the portrait themselves, so putting one up became a public badge of the movement they had chosen to join.
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2008Coke Studio Pakistan
Calls itself the sound of the nation and sets the country's qawwali, folk and classical singers beside its pop acts, so Pakistanis heard their own heritage in a brand's show.
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2006Bienvenido a la república independiente de tu casa
Gives each family an anthem, a flag and a constitution read in a child's voice, so home feels like a nation of its own and its people a proud citizenry.
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2006Still Free (Air Force One)
Pulled off the most outrageous tag imaginable to win back graffiti credibility, signalling to the scene that the increasingly mainstream label was still one of them.
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2006Bonded by Blood
Prints the players' own blood into a poster of the squad performing the haka, so the fan who owns one literally shares a bloodline with the team.
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2005Australia Day Lamb
Ties lamb to Australia Day and the flag behind its spokesman, so eating it on the day becomes a badge of being properly Australian.
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2002Respect
Sends the brand's own horses to bow before lower Manhattan five months after September 11, so a grieving nation saw Budweiser mourning beside it as one of its own.
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2002Thanda Matlab Coca-Cola
Has Aamir Khan play a Punjabi farmer, a Bengali professor and more, speaking each region's idiom so small-town viewers heard a global cola talking like them.
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2000The Rant ("I Am Canadian")
Has Joe swat away stereotype after stereotype on behalf of a quietly proud nation, so ordering the beer felt like shouting 'I am Canadian!' alongside him.
1990s
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1999Michael Power
Gave the hero no specified nationality, so drinkers across Africa could all claim the continent's own action star as one of theirs.
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1999Whassup?
Turns a greeting between real friends into a password, so repeating it showed you were in on the joke.
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Taco Bell Buys the Liberty BellTaco Bell1996
Taco Liberty Bell
Claims a taco chain has bought the Liberty Bell, and people's attachment to a shared national symbol sent thousands to the phones.
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1991Heritage Minutes
Dramatises Canadian heroes, from the Victoria Cross winners of Valour Road to Jacques Plante's goalie mask, giving young viewers shared stories that mark them out as Canadian.
1980s
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1989Hamara Bajaj
'Hamara Bajaj', our Bajaj, made the scooter a symbol of a strong India, so owning one felt like taking part in the nation's pride.
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1989Jeong
Ties the snack to jeong, a warm attachment Koreans regard as their own, so passing someone a Choco Pie became a way of sharing a national feeling.
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1988Mile Sur Mera Tumhara
Gives each of fourteen languages its turn in the same song before it resolves into the anthem, so viewers from every region feel counted as part of one nation.
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1986Don't Mess with Texas
Speaks the way Texans talk, saying mess rather than litter, so a clean-up plea sounds as if it comes from one of their own.
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1986Roll Up the Rim to Win
Grew into an annual Canadian ritual, a shared national habit that customers missed so much when it went digital that paper rims came back.
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Statue of Liberty RestorationAmerican Express1983
Statue of Liberty Restoration
Tied the card to a monument the whole nation shared, so paying with it became a small way of joining a national effort to save a common symbol.
1970s
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1976Football, Meat Pies, Kangaroos and Holden Cars
Lines Holden cars up with football, meat pies, kangaroos and the flag, so a GM subsidiary came across as part of being Australian and buying one felt patriotic.
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1974Refreshes the Parts Other Beers Cannot Reach
Revives distinctly British things, from bobbies' tired feet to a Cockney elocution lesson, so an imported lager seemed to share the nation's sense of humour.
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1973The 60-Year-Old Swede
Measures Canadians against another nation, so the sting lands on national pride and stirs enough embarrassment to reach Parliament.
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1971Hilltop ("I'd Like to Buy the World a Coke")
Gathers young people from around the world on one hillside to sing as one, so a Vietnam-era audience could feel part of a single, harmonious crowd.
1960s
1950s
1940s
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1943Use It Up – Wear It Out – Make It Do!
Reminds Americans that the nation's labour and goods are fighting, so patching trousers at home becomes a way of joining the war effort as one people.
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1943We Can Do It!
Says 'we' rather than 'you', inviting the women on the factory floor, and later a whole movement, to see themselves as one team.
1910s
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1917Fate tutti il vostro dovere! (Fourth National War Loan)
Asks civilians to share a frontline soldier's sacrifice with their savings, so subscribing to the loan becomes how a loyal Italian does their part for the nation.
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1917Food Will Win the War
Speaks to immigrant communities in Yiddish, Italian, Spanish and Hungarian, treating them as fellow Americans with a part to play in the war.
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1917Wake Up, America! Civilization Calls Every Man, Woman and Child!
Paints the nation as Columbia in a stars-and-stripes gown and calls on every man, woman and child, so each American feels summoned as part of one national family.
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1916On les aura! (Second National Defence Loan)
Echoes the Arc de Triomphe and Pétain's words at Verdun, so subscribing feels like taking your place among the French in a shared national victory.
1900s
Belonging: where it comes from
Henri Tajfel split schoolboys into groups on a trivial basis, such as which of two painters' work they preferred, and found that they still favoured their own group when sharing out rewards (Tajfel, 1970). Robert Cialdini later added this sense of shared identity to his principles of influence, as unity.
In ads it shows up as appeals to a nation, a team, a town, a generation or a subculture, and in brands people use to show which group they belong to.