In the 1930s, advertisers such as Procter & Gamble sought sponsorship of daily radio programming targeted to homemakers, who controlled the household purse strings for cleaning and other household product purchases. Daytime serial dramas soon...

Daytime serials, or soap operas as they are better known, have a form and structure that separates them from other television genres. Rather than beginning and ending within the space of thirty to sixty minutes, soap operas never really begin or end....

A soap opera is an ongoing, episodic work of fiction, usually broadcast on television or radio. Programs described as soap operas have existed as an entertainment long enough for audiences to recognize them simply by the term soap. The name soap opera...

WHAT kind of company is this anyhow?" That is the question Alecia Swasy, a Wall Street Journal reporter, asked herself in 1991 after she learnt that Procter & Gamble (P&G), a consumer-products giant based in Cincinnati, had had her followed, had enlisted the...

The season of colds and flus has blown in on the January chill. So what better time to promote what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calls the single most effective way to stop the spread of infection: Wash your hands. "Handwashing...

A popular new Thai soap opera about love and infidelity in the high skies has angered Thai Airways flight attendants who demanded Monday that the show be canceled for casting their profession in an unrealistic and immoral light."The Air Hostess War," which broadcast its first...

The makers of a racy Thai soap opera about airline crews apologized Tuesday for offending real-life flight attendants, who had complained that its scenes of sexual hijinx sullied their reputations.The Exact Company Ltd., producers of the "The Air Hostess War," said at a news conference...

Maintains that while the storylines of popular soap operas often challenge their viewers ideology, the programs often reflect society's real values and attitudes.