commercialized nationalism

National flags can be a common sight in advertisements. Most countries have some national holiday, some kind of independence day when patriotism gets monetized and used for profit. This is the day when the state will put up flags everywhere, organize some fireworks, maybe even a military parade. This is also the day when many private companies jump on the patriotic advertising bandwagon. Flags or flag colors and shapes on the product packaging, flags in window displays, flags in shop isles. We all have seen this. But why is this happening? Do shop owners really have such strong patriotic feelings that they must utilize every opportunity to display a flag somewhere, or is this just commercialized patriotism—a hypocritical lip service that happens, because marketing people hope to earn a bit of extra cash this way?