Coca-Cola is branding its cans in the US flag to salute the army

Coca-Cola has jumped on the patriotic branding band wagon, by releasing a new can design made up of red and white stripes, with a blue corner section.

The soft-drink company has replaced the stars of the American Flag with the song lyrics: "I'm proud to be an American," signaling that the makeover (which we first saw on Ad Age) is a part of Coke's "Share a Coke and a Song" campaign.

The special edition cans are on sale from now until July 4, according to a press release.

Coca-Cola says the promotion is to mark the 75th anniversary of The United Service Organizations (USO,) a non-profit which provides assistance, services, and entertainment to US service people and their families.

"The patriotic graphics on special 16 oz. cans and multiple club packs are a small way of saying thanks to the USO for all they do," Erika von Heiland Strader, director of community marketing at Coca-Cola North America, said in the press release.

Coca-Cola is encouraging its customers to send messages of support to US service people on a new website, as part of the "Campaign to Connect."

The campaign comes in the wake of other brands, including Smirnoff, Budweiser, and Hershey's own patriotic rebranding, which co-incides with an Olympic summer. So far, beer brand Budweiser has gone the furthest, by rebranding its can label to "America" until the Presidential election in November.