Make me look less American: Brands are changing up their ads amid Trump’s trade war

Can you make my brand look less American when we advertise to Brits?

That was the nature of a request recently fielded by Luke Jonas, cofounder of Nest, a UK-based ad agency that specializes in helping e-commerce brands launch in the US and American companies market internationally.

Jonas said Fresh Threads, a proudly American apparel brand that often features hot young things skating on boardwalks of San Diego in its marketing, is working with Nest to identify British creators it can photograph lounging in London parks and English gardens for its UK push.

This move by Fresh Threads is part of a broader trend sweeping the marketing world. Huge brands like Coca-Cola and McDonald’s, and smaller companies alike, are leaning into local in their ads. Rather than playing up their American roots, many are making efforts to embrace local culture when they advertise abroad as geopolitical tensions between the US and its international counterparts simmer.

Jonas said Nest has also seen a big shift in the regions its clients are targeting. Over the past month, around two-thirds, or 67%, of Nest’s customers who were targeting the US with their marketing have shifted to focus on other countries, with the agency assuming that skirting tariffs was a big motivator. The most common are countries in the European Union (60%), followed by the Middle East (20%).

“In 20 years working in e-commerce, I’ve never seen such a dramatic shift in brand behaviour as the reaction to the Trump tariffs,” Jonas said.

As US tariffs threaten industries that make products ranging from toys to trucks, consumers in some countries have reacted negatively to American brands.

Perhaps the starkest example is Canada, where some consumers are refusing to buy American goods or visit the US. In Europe, some shoppers are using an app called “BrandSnap” to help them identity EU alternatives to US products.

With some international consumers going out of their way to boycott American products, companies are exploring everything from subtle rebranding to “full-fledged marketing pivots” in various countries, said Minkyung Kim, assistant professor of marketing at Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business.

“Brands are localizing and ‘de-Americanizing’ their marketing where needed, without completely abandoning their identity,” Kim said.

Kraft Heinz wants you to know its Canadian products are made in Canada

Kraft Heinz is a clear example of the localizing trend.

The brand could have been a prime candidate for a Canadian boycott after it closed a major Ontario factory in 2014, which left a lingering resentment toward the company in the country. After President Donald Trump made Canada one of his first targets for tariffs — and even floated the idea of annexing the country — Kraft Heinz Canada revved up its marketing response.

It ran TV ads during the Canadian broadcasts of the Super Bowl and March Madness, reminding viewers that its KD mac and cheese contains Canadian wheat and cheese, that Philadelphia cream cheese is 100% Canadian dairy, and that the peanuts in Kraft peanut butter are roasted in Canada.

In January, it ran full-page newspaper ads declaring that Heinz Ketchup is “made in Canada, by Canadians, using Canadian tomatoes,” in response to the country’s then-Prime-Minister Justin Trudeau telling reporters about a previous tariff dispute in Trump’s first term, during which Heinz’s ketchup was “replaced by French’s ketchup because French’s was still using Canadian tomatoes in its ketchup.”

A Kraft Heinz spokesperson said additional Canadian TV ads are airing soon.

Meanwhile, on the American side of the border, some brands are proudly advertising their US roots.

Ford last month ran a campaign with the tagline “From America. For America.” Elsewhere, the apparel brand American Giant recently sent an email to customers, reminding them its products have been “made here since 2011.”

When the geopolitical going gets tough, big brands get local

On earnings calls in recent weeks, execs across corporate America representing brands from Harley-Davidson to Skechers to KFC were peppered with questions from analysts about whether they’re facing pressure internationally from anti-American consumer sentiment.

McDonald’s said it had conducted three different global surveys to gauge how consumers feel about America the country, America the brand, and McDonald’s the brand. The results were bad news for Brand America: McDonald’s said the surveys found an “eight to 10 points” increase in anti-American sentiment. This was most pronounced in Northern Europe and Canada. It also found there was an increase in people saying they were going to cut back on purchasing American brands.

Ian Borden, the fast-food chain’s chief financial officer, said McDonald’s was able to weather the storm because “our brand has been able to adapt appropriately to the kind of cultures and communities that we do business in.”

Coca-Cola CEO James Quincey emphasized its strategy of making global brands locally relevant.

“In the moments of geopolitical tension, one of the key strategies is to drive and reinforce the made in or made by,” Quincey said on the company’s recent earnings call. “The fact that it’s a local business, the factory is down the road from you, your neighbors make the product.”

Joey Camire, CEO of the strategy and design firm Sylvain, said that while brands should always have considered localizing their marketing, it was previously expensive. The rise of AI tools to help with things like language translation and the use of influencers has helped to bring those costs down.

“Strategically, it makes a lot of sense in this moment” for brands to localize where possible, he said.

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