Imagine all the tie-ins

What if there was an episode of "Cheers" in which Sam decides to speak with an accountant about how to properly report his tips, or Nate applied for a Small Business Administration loan for the Peach Pit on "90210", or any sitcom in television history had an episode about jury duty that didn't rely on the premise that jury duty is awful? Univision telenovela “Más Sabe el Diablo,” “The Devil Knows Best,” recently introduced a plot line in which the main character gets a job with the Census Bureau. Surely the stuff of great drama. But the federal government is hoping that the character will encourage census participation by Hispanic Americans, who Census Bureau officials estimate were undercounted by about .7% in the last census (other estimates are several times higher). It's an interesting way to get out a message about civic participation that most people would find it hard to object to, although I'm sure some will manage. The question is, will it work? Only the numbers will be able to tell us.

NYTimes: U.S. Census Uses Telenovela to Reach Hispanics