Commentary

Tractor Supply Company’s “For Life Out Here” and the Construction of the Consumptive Rural: An Extension of Rhoades and Irani (2008)

Authors

• • Robert Patterson rep2z@virginia.edu Email Robert Patterson. (compose email, opens in email app.)
  • University of Virginia, McIntire School of Commerce
• • Bryce D. Tellmann
  • South Dakota School of Mines and Technology

Abstract

Rurality is a powerful force in North America, with implications in cultural, political, economic, and retail domains. This article investigates Tractor Supply Company's (TSC) use of "For Life Out Here" as a corporate motto and commercial advertising strategy, with particular focus on how this phrase leverages ideas of rurality. Through rhetorical analysis of annual reports, web advertising, and in-store product lines, we identify three different forms of rural identity: Spatial, political/group, and individual/consumer. Consideration of how TSC uses rural identity in its corporate communication suggests that it does not so much target rural customers as it does offer consumers anywhere the means to identify as rural.

Keywords: Rural, rhetoric, Tractor Supply Company, consumption, production

How to Cite: Patterson, R. & Tellmann, B. D. (2026) “Tractor Supply Company’s “For Life Out Here” and the Construction of the Consumptive Rural: An Extension of Rhoades and Irani (2008)”, Journal of Applied Communications. 110(2). doi: https://doi.org/10.4148/jac.20847