I love your second point about the static and the lack of music as they relate to the ad’s austerity. That is surely part of the reason why it was so striking for many viewers.

I’m not sure you can tie it that closely to the present moment. After all “hardship, uncertainty, and decline” have always been with us, and the reactionary invocation of a rural ideal have been around an awfully long time too.

Just to give one example: I watched PBS’s documentary on Henry Ford last week, and Ford was deeply invested–via Greenfield Village as well as his anti-urban/anti-Semitic publications–in the idea of a return to “pure” American values he identified with whiteness/Christianity/temperance/rural and small-town living.

The one thing I found distinctive about this ad was the way the broadcast static and/or surface noise in/over the Phil Harvey soliloquy was (seemingly) amplified, especially in the last few seconds after his voice had gone away. It’s like the aural equivalent of the dust, scratches, and leader folks often add to real or faked archival footage to give it a more palpable sense of “pastness.”