Programme Objective:

To promote adult literacy.

Description:

One of the first television producers to use the soap opera or telenovela format for pro-social messages was Miguel Sabido of Mexico's largest commercial television network, Televisa. Inspired by the Peruvian serial Simplemente María, as well as his own successes with four Mexican soap operas with historical themes (including La Tormenta, Los Caudillos and La Constitución), Sabido developed a new methodology for commercial soap operas with social purposes in the early 1970s (see introduction). Together with his sister Irene, Sabido went on to produce six major soap operas in Mexico which applied this methodology.

The first of the serials which used the new methodology was Ven Conmigo ('Come with Me'). Reaching viewers for 30 minutes, five times each week, Ven Conmigo told the melodramatic story of characters which included both "good" and "bad" role models, thus offering the opportunity for the program to promote "socially desirable" behaviors and dissuade "socially undesirable" behaviors. A unique feature of Ven Conmigo was that it specifically promoted enrollment in adult literacy classes established by the National Adult Education Plans. Ven Conmigo achieved higher audience ratings than the other non-prosocial telenovelas on Televisa and is said to have increased enrollment in literacy classes by 63%, to over 800,000 students.

Location:

Mexico

Dates:

1975-1976

Project Cost:

Not available

Agencies Involved:

Televisa

Media Used:

280 30-minute episodes of the serial, aired 5 times per week.