From On Air - Winter 2003

Soap Summit VII Assesses Images of Women
HIV/AIDS Storyline on The Bold and The Beautiful
Wins 3rd Annual CDC Award for Daytime Dramae

On October 25 and 26, 2002, producers, writers, and network executives from daytime dramas gathered at PCI’s Soap Summit VII in Los Angeles to compare the roles of women on soaps with women’s lives in the real world. The annual event invites daytime’s creative luminaries to reflect on the power of soap operas to communicate health information in addition to entertaining their enormous audiences.

Speakers at Soap Summit VII included Arianna Huffington, noted author and columnist; Dr. Florence Haseltine, Director, Center for Population Research at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and Founder, Society for Women’s Health Research; Martha Nochimson, script writer and author of No End to Her, a study of the role of women on soaps; Dr. Judy Rosener, author of America’s Competitive Secret, Women Managers and Professor at the Graduate School of Management at the University of California, Irvine; and Andrea Swartzendruber, a fellow at the Global AIDS Program of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In her keynote address, Arianna Huffington emphasized the simple truth of the power of storytelling. “In order to change things, you have to be able to tell stories, whether in politics, in culture, or in soaps,” she said, adding “that will also open people’s minds to other possibilities.”

Writer Martha Nochimson outlined her view of the misperceptions people hold about soap operas. “The first critics who examined soap opera made no secret of their belief that it had a damaging effect on women,” she said. But Nochimson contends that soaps have actually promoted the role of women, both on television and socially. “Without soap opera, television would be the kingdom of the male centered story,” she said. “With soap opera, television has become a source of empowerment for women.”

On November 2, PCI held a mini-Soap Summit in New York, where four of the programs are produced. Supported by Proctor and Gamble, the half-day program allowed us to engage the New York-based soap community in this year’s discussion on women and soaps.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) stepped up its already high profile at PCI’s Soap Summits by announcing the results of a study conducted in conjunction with the HIV/AIDS storyline on The Bold and the Beautiful that won the agency’s annual Sentinel for Health Award. Andrea Swartzendruber’s presentation of the data was a highlight of both Summits.

After airing a public service announcement (PSA) at the end of each of two episodes of The Bold and the Beautiful, the CDC tracked calls to their national AIDS hotline. In the first episode followed by the PSA, the character Tony finds out he has HIV. In the second, he reveals his HIV status to his girlfriend. Both PSAs included the 800 number for the National AIDS hotline.
Following the PSAs, the hotline received approximately 16 times the daily number of calls usually recorded. The number of calls outstripped those made in response to similar hotline tie-ins on 60 Minutes and MTV.

The Sentinel for Health Award recognizes exemplary storylines on daytime dramas that inform, educate, and motivate viewers to make choices for healthier and safer lives. The CDC also created a new award category in conjunction with this year’s Soap Summit, presenting the first Sentinel for Health Pioneer Award to Agnes Nixon, writer of Guiding Light and creator/writer of All My Children and One Life to Live. Ms. Nixon received the Pioneer Award for her 1962 groundbreaking Guiding Light storyline on cancer and the importance of women getting Pap tests.

This represented the first time a daytime drama featured a serious health issue. According to Ms. Nixon, the struggle to get the storyline on the air included prohibitions on the use of the words cancer, uterus, or Pap test.
The Bold and the Beautiful storyline on HIV/AIDS will be part of a new research study that is being undertaken by PCI in association with the Norman Lear Center at the University of Southern California to assess the impact of American serial programs on overseas audiences. The Bold and the Beautiful reaches 350 million people in 100 countries worldwide on a daily basis.

One CBS executive attending Soap Summit VII summed up PCI’s role in promoting soap operas as a vehicle for improving the health and well being of millions of people, and creating recognition within the CDC that soap operas can have a profound positive impact on public health. “Of course,” she said to PCI Senior Vice President Sonny Fox, “you know this all started with you.”

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