A deconstruction of the myths floated in AT&T's happy rural America commercial by the Center for Rural Strategies Edyael Casperalta in a guest blog for Albuquerque's Media Literacy Project. Very worth reading!

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This AT&T commercial opens with a wide shot of uninhabited, undeveloped, and empty green fields divided by a freeway of large moving trucks and cars. “This is Genco Services, McAllen, Texas” states the narrator, as his voice continues on we move into a shot of a single Longhorn steer. As someone who was raised in this very area of the country, this commercial literally made me laugh. I have never seen a Longhorn in McAllen. McAllen, located in southern Texas just north of the US-Mexico border, is intensely urban with constant border crossings by individuals seeking its international destination-shopping stores. As a result of so much activity, McAllen appears much larger than the 130,000 or so that live there every day, and is definitely much larger than this commercial would let us know.

The techniques of persuasion at play in this commercial include Symbols—the steer and the open spaces all symbolize farm imagery. Those symbols are then juxtaposed with the town name of McAllen—making McAllen appear to be much smaller and less urban than it is in reality. This process is called Card Stacking, leading the viewer to a desired conclusion about McAllen and about rural communities. To be more clear, if the viewer didn’t have any other reference about McAllen, the commercial would embed into their head that this desolate place is actually in “the middle of nowhere” as described by the ad. No buildings insight; no other movement except the Genco Services (GIS) trucks carrying heavy rental equipment facilitated by the implied ubiquitous and omnipotent AT&T network which is “always headed somewhere.” Implicit in this comment is also the technique of persuasion, New—in this case, it is new technology to the rescue of rural communities.

Interestingly, AT&T also utilizes Diversion in this ad. The story is of high tech in rural communities, not for rural communities. The tracking technology is for people who want to know where their things (tank trunks) are that have been sent into the wilderness (plowed ground). Many of us are comfortable with the idea of our shipment having an electronic tag so it does not get lost or waylaid. At one point a worker says that the AT&T digital tag is the “bell on the cat.” Bells on cats let you know where your cat is, but mostly they are a warning system to tell birds to fly to safety. Here, rural is the unknown and potentially dangerous. This technology will provide harbor and let us master rural for our own gain. It is a modern Hansel and Gretel tale, where we can send our loved ones, or beloved objects, into the woods, and they will leave a trail of digital bread crumbs that will get them to their destination and bring them back home safely.

While the commercial does not represent rural as backward, dumb, or mean—which are old and tired stereotypes, there are many untold stories to unpack. AT&T’s careless misrepresentation of McAllen as a remote area seems to be part of the company’s strategy to convince the public that it is in fact interested in rural areas and in closing the digital divide. This message has been in the works for a while. Last year, AT&T asked the Federal Communications Commission to allow it to purchase T-Mobile, a major telecommunications network, and its competitor, for $39 billion. One of the reasons cited for the buy out of its competitor was to “to expand 4G LTE deployment to an additional 46.5 million Americans, including in rural, smaller communities.” Media advocates and public interests groups successfully worked arduously to expose the merger for the media take over it was, and both the Department of Justice and the FCC both denied the proposed transaction establishing it would be against the public interest.

Beyond AT&T, we must deconstruct all the lip service that telecommunications corporations use to get the public’s support – “give us what we want, and we’ll extend service to you.” According to at 2010 study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, only half of rural residents have broadband in the home. The figure is even more dismal in Native communities, with less than 10% penetration rate. So, when a renowned telecommunications provider advertises connectivity in remote areas, we are moved to believe. As residents living in remote areas, we want a solution. We need a solution. While we can feel warm and fuzzy with 30 seconds of a supposedly genuine recognition of the challenges in accessing wireless and high-speed Internet services, we must look at these promises critically. What is this commercial really selling us? How are the places and images being manipulated? And while the provider appeals to our needs, why is it trying to stop other options we have as a consumers? Because it is not just about buying out a major competitor, hoarding resources, or hiking up prices, but about how these power companies are actively undermining the efforts of communities to own their telecommunications infrastructure and taking away the power of state entities to regulate them. I imagine that a community-owned, municipal, or local non-profit provider would advertise their wireless, high-tech, high-speed service not as the technology passing through or risking the wilderness, but as essential infrastructure that helps build a community and stays for the long haul.