Co-founder shares uncomfortable realisation after first US visit: ‘America owns the suit’

Confidence can feel loud when you are used to silence. That was the thought a co-founder carried back after his first visit to the United States, where he felt struck not what was built, but how openly it was shown and celebrated. Sidhant reflected on the contrast he noticed during his visit.(@anupamsidhant/X) In a post shared on X (formerly Twitter), co-founder of ad agency Bombay Locale, Anupam Sidhant, reflected on the contrast he noticed during his visit. “I recently went to the US for the first time, and came back with an uncomfortable thought: Most of us are taught to build quietly. Americans are taught to build loudly,” the caption of the post reads. Beyond the first impressions: According to the post, for the first few days, Sidhant experienced the usual first-time wonder. “I stared at the roads, the buildings, the waymos, and the sunsets. The spectacle works. It’s designed to. That’s the opening act,” the post adds. Once the novelty faded, a deeper pattern became clear. Beneath the infrastructure and strong branding, he noticed a powerful system of storytelling. “Beneath the infrastructure and branding was something deeper at play. America is exceptionally good at telling its own story.” After the fog of first impressions lifted, he began to see what he called a kind of “narrative architecture”. The choices, the framing, and the emphasis stood out. “America owns the suit. And this is where the US hit me hardest. The country doesn’t apologise for its story. It doesn’t whisper it. It doesn’t downplay it,” the post adds. HT.com has reached out to the user for more details. This report will be updated when he responds. Check out the post here: Here’s how people reacted to the post: The post drew wide attention online, with many users agreeing with the observation and sharing similar experiences from their own visits to the US. One of the users commented, “Spot on. Unfiltered, insightful, and 100% necessary. This thread needs more eyes on it.” A second user commented, “The US is good at everything, including marketing.” “Good to know that people see the same as I did in 2015 since I came here. But the trouble is 90% of people from India don’t see this narrative,” another user commented.