Crestview's school colors are purple and gold. The students are designing a flag using three solid-colored horizontal stripes, as shown. Using one or both of the school colors, how many different flags are possible if adjacent stripes may be the same color?

[asy]
size(75);
draw((0,0)--(0,12));
dot((0,12));
draw((0,12)--(8,12)--(8,11)--(0,11));
draw((8,11)--(8,9)--(0,9));
draw((8,9)--(8,6)--(0,6));
[/asy]
There are two possible colors for the first stripe, two possible colors for the second stripe, and two possible colors for the third stripe. Since the colors of each stripe are mutually exclusive, there are $2\times 2 \times 2 = \boxed{8}$ ways to color the flag.