A new telenovela starring the People Meter

If you thought Univision and Telemundo were the only ones in the business of giving Latinos their much-needed dose of drama, think again. In an effort to explain Latinos what the hell it is that it does, The Nielsen Company this summer debuted a “telenovela” in Humboldt Park, Illinois.According to a July 30 statement, The Nielsen Company’s telenovela is “an innovative approach to demonstrating and informing consumers about the Nielsen Local People Meter technology.” The marketing gimmick –which debuted this summer at the Fiestas Puertorriqueñas– is the creation of FCG Latino, which opted for this “fresh approach” to inform consumers about what Nielsen does and how sample households are randomly selected.

But don’t get too excited: what Nielsen calls a telenovela is simply a 20 x 20 outdoor booth were local actors perform, playing the role of a Latino household receiving the visit from a Nielsen representative. Alas, no zorro-style fighting, nor juicy threesomes! I wonder what type of ratings that thing will get…

Welcome! … are you a U.S. citizen?

As a freelance writer for Crain’s Advertising Age, I have to visit their building every now and then. The publishing house occupies a couple of floors in a big building on 711 Third Avenue and, as it often is the case in many office buildings, visitors are expected to fill out a visitor’s book with basic information such as name, time in, person you are visiting, time out, etc.

Nothing wrong with that, except during my last visit I noticed the visitor’s book had a new field that had been dutifully filled in by previous visitors: “Are you a citizen of the United States?” That was a first (and I’ve lived in this country for over 9 years now). Of course, I found that very amusing, and wrote a big “NO” in the corresponding column. I was also proud to see I was the first “NO” of the day. Apparently, everyone before me was either a proud American or a dangerous foreigner trying to sneak in.

Curious, I asked the editors why such information was required, and received the most sensible, honest answer anyone could have expected:

“We got that thing at Staples … we had no idea about that!”

Menos mal!