• Learn More

• Point of View

• Take Action

• Anatomy of Campaign

• For Press

For more information contact: Dwight Langhum, 202/546-9170
Langhum Mitchell Communications

Campaign Launched to Stop Show

WHITESBURG, KY-Today the Center for Rural Strategies launched a campaign to derail CBS’s planned reality show based on its old Beverly Hillbillies sitcom. The group’s efforts kicked off with a series of ads in major publications and announced that subsequent activities will soon follow.

“The brass at CBS clearly think it’s safe to make fun of and commercialize low-income rural folks. We intend to lessen their comfort zone and make them re-think this premise,” said Dee Davis, president of the Center for Rural Strategies.

The Show is currently being considered as a spring replacement. According to various reports, the network has had a crew of casting agents conducting “hick hunts” in rural areas in Arkansas, West Virginia, Missouri, North Carolina, Tennessee and Kentucky in search of a multi-generational family of five or more-parents, children and grandparents-who will be relocated for at least a year to a mansion in Beverly Hills. The family will be given money to buy expensive cars, designer suits, hire maids, personal assistants, and to dine at fine restaurants. At the Show’s end, family members will be turned loose and once again left to fend for themselves.

Dee Davis further said, “Viacom shareholders should take note. There are 56 million rural Americans or 20 percent of the nation’s population. Those of us who live in rural America are not fair game for CBS executives to contort and make sport of to line their pockets. This is a lesson in business ethics and humanity lost on the current crop of CBS executives.”

The Center for Rural Strategies is a non-profit organization that seeks to improve rural life by increasing public understanding about the importance and value of rural communities. More information about Rural Strategies can be found at www.ruralstrategies.org.