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RURAL REALITY vs. REALITY TV:
ANATOMY OF A PUBLIC AWARENESS CAMPAIGN

Campaign launch

Some geniuses think it might be a laugh to plop a family of real hillbillies down in a Beverly Hills mansion and let the cameras roll. But today an ad in some of the nation's largest newspapers asked, "How many ways can one TV network get it wrong?"

James Carville
Co-host of CNN's "Crossfire"
January 9, 2003

For a while, it seemed as if the sole virtue of reality shows … was fairness -- no participant, regardless of race, creed or gender, is spared humiliation in the pursuit of entertainment. Last week, however, a class war broke out over CBS's plan to create a reality comedy, "The Real Beverly Hillbillies." … The Center for Rural Strategies, a nonprofit organization based in Whitesburg, Ky., took out large ads in The New York Times and other major newspapers in protest.

Reporter Allesandra Stanley
The New York Times
January 12, 2003

Rural Strategies, working with Public Media Center of San Francisco, designed a strongly worded print advertisement to launch the campaign. Placing the ad in papers such as The New York Times and Los Angeles Times ensured that the message would reach the upper management of CBS. These high-profile placements also lent credibility to the campaign, put the message in front of journalists nationally, and reached an audience of millions. During the first two weeks of the campaign, the ad also ran in the Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Cincinnati Enquirer, and Nashville Tennessean, each selected to reach strategic audiences such as members of Congress, public-minded institutions, CBS advertisers, and the entertainment industry.

With public relations firm Langhum Mitchell Communications of Washington, D.C., Rural Strategies developed a press strategy coordinated with the publication of the ad. The response was immediate. Journalists flocked to the story because it was news. It contained controversy, pitted a small nonprofit based in a town of 1,500 against a communications behemoth, and played on current sentiments about reality television. Rural Strategies allowed journalists to develop these angles and then took advantage of the opportunity to talk about rural issues and the role of media in shaping perceptions of rural people and, in turn, public policy.

Within the first days of the campaign, the story had been covered by more than 200 newspapers coast to coast and scores of broadcast outlets including CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, Fox national news, National Public Radio, and dozens of radio networks and individual stations.

The campaign's popularity also opened the door for additional coverage of other rural issues. Associated Press reporters in New York and Washington produced two widely carried stories that dovetailed with themes in the campaign: one about chronic economic difficulty in rural Pennsylvania and the other about the impact of media images on Appalachian communities.

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