View source for Run it up the flagpole

{{short description|Catchphrase popular in the United States}}
{{mdy|date=February 2022}}
[[File:UN Members Flags.JPG|thumb|Many flags on poles]]
'''''Let's run it up the flagpole and see if anyone salutes it''''' is a [[catchphrase]] which became popular in the United States during the late 1950s and early 1960s. It means "to present an idea tentatively and see whether it receives a favorable reaction". It is now considered a [[cliché]]. Sometimes it is used seriously, but more often it is used humorously, with the intention that it be recognized as both hackneyed and outdated. An equivalent phrase is "to send up a [[trial balloon]]".

==Background==
The phrase was associated with the advertising agencies then located on [[Madison Avenue]] in [[New York City|New York]],<ref name="origins">{{Cite web |date=2018-06-03 |title=Run it up the flagpole |url=https://www.wordorigins.org/big-list-entries/run-it-up-the-flagpole |access-date=2021-04-27}}, article citing two 1957 sources</ref>  and with the "men in the grey flannel suits".<ref name="jeliza"/> Comedians,<ref name="jeliza"/> when mocking corporate culture, were certain to use it, along with expressions such as ''[[the whole ball of wax]]'' and the use of invented words adding the suffix ''[[-wise]]'' (e.g. "We've had a good year, revenue wise").{{cn|date=February 2022}}

The phrase was also used as an ice breaker between serious moments in the motion picture ''[[12 Angry Men (1957 film)|12 Angry Men]]'' starring [[Henry Fonda]].<ref name="Angry Men">{{Cite web |title=12 Angry Men |url=https://www.madison-schools.com/cms/lib/MS01001041/Centricity/Domain/4235/12%20Angry%20Men%20full%20text.pdf |website=Script |publisher=Penguin Classics |via=madison-schools.com}}</ref> The line was delivered by Juror no. 12, an advertising executive played by [[Robert Webber]].<ref name="origins" />

In [[Stan Freberg]]'s 1961 comedy album, ''[[Stan Freberg Presents the United States of America Volume One: The Early Years]]'', General [[George Washington]], after having just received the [[Betsy Ross flag|nation's new flag]] from seamstress [[Betsy Ross]], announces that he'll just "run it up the flagpole... see if anyone salutes."<ref>{{Cite web |others=Script transcribed and edited by David Sudmeier |title=Script |url=https://freberg.westnet.com/text/usa1.html |website=The History of the United States of America}}</ref>
[[File:Mongolian Army soldiers salute while their nation's flag waves in the breeze at the Transit Center at Manas.jpg|thumb|Salute!]]
In [[Allan Sherman]] captured the essence of this phrase in his 1963 album [[My Son, the Celebrity]], with a parody of [[Gilbert and Sullivan]]'s "When I Was a Lad". In Sherman's lyrics, the narrator joins an advertising firm:<ref name="jeliza">{{cite web |title=When I was a lad |url=https://www.jeliza.net/parody/pinafore/when-i-was-a-lad |website=Gilbert & Sullivan Parody Archive |date=2007-03-10}}</ref>

{{poem quote|I worked real hard for the dear old firm,
I learned most every advertising term.
I said to the men in the dark gray suits,
"Let's run it up the flagpole and see who salutes."}}

In a double entendre reflecting the narrator's mental dissonance,<ref name="Melchior">{{Cite web |last=Melchior |first=Al |date=June 2024 |title=The Timeless Meaning Behind "Flagpole Sitta" by Harvey Danger |url=https://americansongwriter.com/the-timeless-meaning-behind-flagpole-sitta-by-harvey-danger |website=American Songwriter}}</ref> the group [[Harvey Danger]] used the phrase in their 1997 song "[[Flagpole Sitta]]":
{{poem quote|Fingertips have memories,
Mine can't forget the curves of your body
And when I feel a bit naughty
I run it up the flagpole and see who salutes
(But no one ever does)}}

As it became hackneyed, it got a second life as a launching point for the invention of joking variations, such as "Let's drop it in the pool and see if it makes a splash", "Let's throw it against the wall and see if it sticks", "Let's put it in a saucer and see if the cat licks it up", and "Let's put it on the five-fifteen and see if it gets off at Westport" (i.e.,  let's put it on a New York City commuter train and find out whether it is destined for [[Westport, Connecticut]], a town thought to be the home of many successful executives).<ref name="Partridge">{{Cite book |last=Partridge |first=Eric |url=https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofcatc00eric/page/258/mode/2up |title=A Dictionary of Catch Phrases, revised and updated edition |date=1985 |publisher=Scarborough House |editor-last=Beale |editor-first=Paul |page=259 |isbn=978-0-8128-8536-1 |quote=run it up the flagpole (and see who salutes)}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Trial balloon]]

==References==
{{reflist}}
==External links==
{{Wiktionary|run something up the flagpole}}
*{{commonscat-inline|Flagpoles}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Run It Up The Flagpole}}
[[Category:English phrases]]