TELEVISION MINIDRAMAS - SOCIAL MARKETING AND EVALUATION IN EGYPT

Television has been extensively used to communicate health messages fo r over a decade in Egypt. Viewers of the evening soap operas have been seeing six commercials for family planning, oral rehydration solution (ORS), and immunizations. People of all social classes can sing the j ingles of the most popular ads. The producers of these health spots us e increasingly sophisticated story lines, settings, and characters rep resenting rural peasants, played by popular and well-liked actors. Eva luation of the content and impact of these messages has lagged behind the creative sophistication of their production. This article reviews the context and content of televised health messages in Egypt during t he 1980s, critically assesses the evaluation of mass media health educ ation, and suggests strategies for more effective evaluation. The auth or worked for some years with a private donor agency that funded the p roduction of a number of televised health commercials in Egypt.