Flag fantastic... or just plain flagging?

So, are you fatigued with hearing about this summer already?

The Great British Summer.

Great Britain 2012.

The Summer of Sport

Etc. etc. etc.

Obviously with the country back in recession, the shops are doing all they can do to get us out buying; and they seem to have it easy this summer.

There is red, white and blue everywhere you look, and it's still only May.

Now, there is a lot going on this summer.

There is obviously the Queen's Diamond Jubilee – a four day weekend with (currently) predicted amazing weather.

Then there is the 'O' word. The Olympics.

And the Euros (though, inexplicably it seems, Britain doesn't seem to be hosting them - how remiss of EUFA) as well as the usual scattering of regular events.

And yes, we need it. Times are tough, we've had a few harsh winters, wash-out summers, a few years of austerity and generally not much to celebrate. So I can understand why they are pushing this summer: if we can't enjoy the summer when we have both a Diamond Jubilee and the Olympics on our doorstep, when can we?

The advertising is very canny though. It's all very coy. It's red, white and blue. It's summer. There's a lot of things that the advertising isn't.

It isn't focused on sport. Well, afterall, one of the main events is non-sporting. And you never want to alienate those people who are almost vociferous with their non-sportingness. I can recall a chain of pubs in a previous World Cup campaign actively advertising itself as a 'Football Free Zone.'

But it isn't focused on the Jubilee entirely either. Thus you can try to tickle both Royalist and Republican chin at the same time. You're probably not actually going to please those who are not nationalists, obviously, or those who think the use of red, white and blue everywhere is almost denigrating the Union flag. But you can never please all of the people all of the time.

But not focusing on a single, particular event of the summer allows the shops to have a co-ordinated advertising campaign covering the whole of the season; rather than spending lots on a Jubilee campaign, and the same again on an Olympics campaign. It's a Single-Spend-Summer or Common-Consolidated-Campaign.

And, of course, the Olympics are a funny one. The word Olympics and phrase London 2012 are protected: you can only use them if you have a licence to. So you see companies trying to get as close to the Olympics without actually associating with them.

Take the Subway sandwich chain. They have an advertising campaign where a number of athletes who will almost certainly be competing in the Olympics telling you what their Personal Best sandwiches are. Nice. No using the 'O' word. Aside from telling you what sport they are competing in, there isn't actually any mention directly of 'sport' or 'competing'.

It's good, but not quite good enough...

Sky has launched its “Britain deserves HD” campaign with massive billboards featuring a range of athletes undertaking their sporting endeavours, bedecked in red, white and blue and the tagline “Believe in Britain”.

They could almost be dressed in the official sportswear of TeamGB. But they're not. So very, very close; but certainly not close enough to breach the legislation.

The Summer of Sport is the phrase being used by those providers of services or products specifically targetted at sport who cannot use the O word, and allows them to remind people there is also the Euros football tournament as well. The Summer of Britain is used more generally where they do not want to specifically limit themselves to sport.

And this is where the Union flag really has come into its own: anyone can use it. It isn't protected or restricted in any way: just ask the BNP. But it allows the nation to unite; and – more particularly – it allows the retailers an very cheap marketing strategy which actually almost seems supported by or co-ordinated to everyone else's.

You're not worrying about blending into the crowd, you're actively using herd mentality.

The Union flag is getting splattered across everything and anything. I wandered round my local mini-super-market at the weekend, and they had put Union flag labels on anything that had been made in Britain. Weirdly this had been applied to feminine hygiene products and toilet paper as well as the beers and spirits that you may have been expecting them to promote. So it looks as though tampons seem to have some sort of connection to either the Jubilee or the Summer of sport.

Now, I'm a huge fan of the Union flag. My work mug is a giant, Union flag mug. One of the fountain pens I use has the Union flag on it, as does one of my keyrings and even my doormat.

So, is the ubiquity building a brand? Or is it dulling the senses? By applying it to everything, regardless as to how remotely connected it is to any of the celebrations, is it discrediting the campaign?

I don't think so, I think the ubiquity is enhancing the spirit. The flag - and nationality generally - is supposed to build pride, a collective, unifying identity, something around which we can build a community and something which has never defined a single commodity. If anything it is a shame that it is being exploited on such a temporal and commercial basis, and that the flags and colours are not used all the more outside of these events: if the crisps that I've bought with the flag on the packet are so eagerly British, why are they not so for the rest of the time?

But then that would affect our perception of the event – we would not get so caught up in the flurry of the Jubilee if we were being bombarded in a similar manner on a permanent basis. It's all about striking a happy medium – not overdoing it either temporally or continually. Know when it is enough that you have built the brand identity without becoming excessive in duration or reach.

Now, wrap me in bunting and throw me to the Rupublicans.