What Heritage’s Terrible Ad Says About The State Of Conservatism

The influential think tank settles on bourgeois domesticity and ‘Judeo-Christianity’ as America’s true identity

The Heritage Foundation released an advertisement last week called “America the Beautiful.” The AI-generated commercial is really bad. It’s very obviously AI and lacks all good taste, human emotion, and proper sense of aesthetics. It resembles a parody of the conservative movement.

The ad, which aired during NFL playoff games, shows very diverse American families gathered around the dinner table. They’re AI-generated, so they all look strange. As the ad intones, Americans may look different over time, but they still hold to the same principles. Those principles are never stated, but each family–whether black or white, Christian or Jewish–has a holy book on the dinner table. There are more non-white faces than white faces in the ad, sometimes in elaborate combinations, such as a Hispanic soldier with an Asian wife. The commercial comes off as extremely desperate to avoid racism accusations. It also makes sure to prominently feature a Jewish family, complete with a young male who takes off a newsboy hat to reveal a yarmulke. I guess it’s one way to dispel the anti-Semitic accusations against Heritage.

The ad attempts to resemble the mythical suburban Americana of most sports ads, complete with the artificial diversity and happy tone. But, from a quality perspective, it’s not good at all. It looks cheap and weird. Many viewers may wonder what it’s trying to say besides America has always been about eating dinner with our diverse families.

One could write a whole article about the poor quality of the ad, or how it stands as an odd attempt to rehabilitate Heritage’s “extremist” image. But it’s more interesting to examine the American identity promoted by the ad and how it relates to the Right’s ongoing debate over that matter. Heritage’s ad declares America’s identity is Judeo-Christianity and bourgeois domesticity. That won’t play well with the Online Right, but it would have more cachet with football fans.

The American Right is on a quest to discover America’s true national identity. It’s no longer popular within the conservative to say we’re just an idea, as evidenced by the hostile reaction to Vivek Ramaswamy’s declarations in favor of that notion. (That argument is still popular among ordinary Americans, however.) That has driven interest in the Heritage American concept, which imagines the country’s identity as shaped by a particular ethnic group. But this term has little resonance outside the internet and it’s not even clear among Heritage Americanists as to who would count as one. It’s unlikely to make much headway into offline discourse as it tends to draw shrieks of “RACISM” and doesn’t relate to how regular Americans see themselves.

Conservatives looking for a tribal identity to challenge the creedal nation thesis have increasingly latched on to Christian nationalism. It’s a theme found in Heritage’s ad. What makes America America is our faith, as seen in the Bible (and, for one scene, the Torah) at all the family dinner scenes. This faith, which is never spelled out, unites Americans across generations, classes, and races. It’s a far-more inclusive identity than Heritage American, as well as more palatable to the NFL-watching public. A commercial dedicated to the Anglo-Saxon settlers would go over as well as an ad entirely in a foreign language. It’s something the normie doesn’t relate to. But an ad about families eating and praying together? That’s something a greater number of Americans understand.

Conservatives also solve the issue of making themselves appealing to a multiracial audience. Everyone can be part of this faith-based identity, so long as you’re a LEGAL American. This identity was on full display at TPUSA’s last AmericaFest, demonstrating a broad tribal identity to build a conservative politics around, as I explained last month:

Emphasizing Christianity is obviously nothing new for American conservatism. What’s new is how the faith acts as a surrogate ethnic identity. The Religious Right focused on the beliefs and practices of the faith, which is why it was reliably socially conservative but often terrible on identity issues. MAGA’s Christian nationalism emphasizes simply being a Christian over specific beliefs and practices. Its purpose is to engender a strong group identity among “Red Americans” and encourage support for right-wing policies. The group identity aspect allows Nicki Minaj, Russell Brand, Nicole Shanahan, and other unorthodox Christians to emerge as representatives of the faith. What matters is that they publicly declare their membership in the tribe, not that they act like Christians.

The one change is that Heritage seemed to revive the Judeo-Christian line in its ad.

Whether this will work in elections is another matter. But it seems to appeal to a large number of conservatives and increasingly serves as the Right’s pitch to the rest of the country.

The other core element of the ad is bourgeois domesticity. Apparently, America’s history is just us gathering around the table after a long day of work. It’s certainly a major part of the American Dream, but it makes our history a rather dull affair. It’s not a bad thing. It just doesn’t make for much of a national mythos without the adventure, glory, and struggle that defined our history. But this is an ad for football games, not a film epic. Most of the other playoff ads celebrate bourgeois domesticity, with families rushing around to buy detergent, get the best dog food for Spot, and figure out their financial investments. The family dinner scene is one of the most common themes in American advertising, so it makes sense for Heritage to utilize it for its own purposes.

With some changes, such as going with real actors instead of AI, the ad probably would’ve been fine for a NFL game audience. But it probably would still disappoint a right-wing audience, especially since it’s meant to celebrate America’s 250th birthday. They want something more than prayer at the dinner table to represent the national mythos. But that’s about as much as you can expect for something aimed at a normie audience. It’s going to be basic.

That doesn’t mean it needs to be overtly multicultural like the Heritage ad. It’s expected there will be some diversity in such a commercial in our age, but there’s no requirement for the comical level the AI program generated.

The ad stands as a testament to the Right’s struggle to figure out how to portray itself to the general public. Trump isn’t bothered by this question, as he’s just himself. His two election victories signifies that’s enough for him. But for the rest of the Right, there’s a need to have something beyond the personal charisma of the 47th president. It doesn’t want to return to Paul Ryanism, and it realizes that the overt identitarianism of the Alt Right has little appeal. So it goes with something like we saw in the Heritage ad.

The one clear identifying principle for the Right is anti-leftism. It may have been better just to have done an ad celebrating the Founding Fathers and then dropping a line that “we don’t cancel heroes in America” or something like that to reaffirm that unifying trait. It would’ve certainly been better than what was produced, but it’s likely they wanted to go with something positive. We ended up with something cringe instead.

It’s not that important for conservatives to have a coherent ad for playoff games, so it’s not the end of the world. But it does indicate the issues that could arise for a post-Trump Right. Without his persona, conservatives face the daunting question over how to present themselves to the country. The Heritage ad shows a lot of work is needed.