Teletón (Mexico)

The Teletón in Mexico is a yearly event, started in 1997, in which though a TV and radio broadcast of more that 24 hours it is intended to collect money to help in the creation of children rehabilitation centers, called "Centro de Rehabilitación Infantil Teletón", or "CRIT" "(English: "Teletón Children's Rehabilitation Center")", for children with different disabilities. Mexico's proposal was born due to the initiative of Fernando Landeros. The Teletón in Mexico is produced by Televisa along with more than 500 Mexican and foreign media, as well as more than a hundred commercial firms that sponsor the event. The stated mission of the telethon is "to provide knowledge about physical disabilities, giving a strong message about respect, equality and support to people in these conditions".

The last events have lasted around 30 hours, but since 1997 it has been started on the first Friday of December. The last Teletón took place on December 7 and 8 of 2007 and is conceptualized as "a project of national unity where the Mexicans have the chance to gather and work for the same cause." Until 2003 the final stage of the event had always been marked by a concert in the Azteca Stadium, ever since then it has been changing the venue: in 2004 and 2005 it was held at Mexico City's Zócalo, in 2006 at the Foro Sol and in 2007 it was moved to the National Auditorium.

A curious difference among the other telethons in Latinamerica, in Mexico, "Teletón", is a masculine word, therefore calling itself "El" Teletón", whereas all the others are styled "La" Teletón", a femenin noun.

From 1997 to 2004, Mexican actress and pop star, Lucero was heavily involved in every telethon, being the main spokesperson for most of the broadcast. After a controversy involving her security personnel and the media, her role has been downplayed and several other personalities from Televisa have been included in the broadcast.

CRITs

The first Teletón was broadcasted on December 12, 1997, the day that Televisa, together with other 70 communication media organized it. At the end of the ceremony the goal was achieved and with a huge surplus. From then on the goal has always been the same amount that was obtained last year plus one Mexican Peso.

As of 2007, Teletón had met the goal each year and even raised surpluses which has allowed the construction of eleven CRITs. The locations of the CRITs are chosen on a geographical basis, so that every region has at least one, although it has been stated that the goal is to built one in evey state. Some other are built on areas that "have earned it" depending on the money they have raised on previous editions:

* Mexico State - May 13, 1999
* Occidente - September 29, 2000
* Oaxaca - December 7, 2001
* Aguascalientes - December 6, 2002
* Coahuila - December 5, 2003
* Guanajuato - December 5, 2003
* Hidalgo - November 25, 2005
* Chihuahua - November 23, 2006
* Chiapas - November 28, 2006

The CRITs opened on 2007 were the ones opened because of the sum of money raised by the people of those areas:
* Quintana Roo - November 29, 2007, it was built there because Quintana Roo had been the state that had donated the most.
* Nezahualcóyotl - November 27, 2007, Nezahualcóyotl had been the municipality that had donated the most.

Media Participation

In the first edition, Teletón counted with the participation of 70 national media, having a central role the TV and the radio stations linked or associated with Televisa, which allowed it to make a nation-wide promotion campaign. For the 2007 edition it counted with the participation of more than 500 national and international media. The most notable exception is that the other major TV chain in Mexico, "TV Azteca", has never participated in the event given that all the media is binded to broadcast Televisa's signal and TV Azteca refuses to do it and demands the right to use its own signal.

2007 also marked the first time that donations were received from foreign countries with donations being received from the Hispanic population in the United States and Canada, as well as from Spain.

Notes:^"1", equivalence as for December 16, 2007: 10.92 MXN = 1 USD

ponsor Support

Teletón operations are supported, also, by some enterprises that finance some of the expenses of the CRITs all year round and they also make an economic donation the days of the event. A benefit they receive is that there can only be one sponsor for each product category, therefore only the twenty-something companies' logos will be featured in the broadcast and only they have access to the commercial breaks, effectively forbidding the airing of the competition on most media for two days.

In the first edition there were only 9 sponsors and as for 2007 the number has raised to 22. Some of them are:

Criticism

Ever since the first edition, the Teletón has been subject to a lot of criticisms for many reasons. There has been three major criticisms made towards the organization, which are:

* The overuse of 'corny' moments. The program is made up of musical numbers, sponsor ads and histories of children that had been helped by the CRITs, all linked together by the conductors. What is more criticized about this is that, not mattering that histories are tear jerking enough and are edited to make them look even more dramatic, the conductors tend to cry on screen every time they appear, stating that the donations were better the last year and make the process sound even more critical.

* The perceived notion that every year it seems that the goal is not going to be met, being ensured during the 30 hours of broadcasting that the sponsor donations have already being added, and then suddenly the level of donations rises fast and/or some other sponsors appear to make their donations or to make a double donation in the name of the workers, therefore ensuring the goal and pushing it higher for the next year. On the 2007 edition, 30 minutes before the end of the emission and with a gap of MXN$31'000,000 between the goal and the money raised so far, all the conductors appeared on air, some of them crying and others on the verge to with a broken voice, asking the people to donate. On the next half-hour, the rhythm of the donations increased dramatically, raising almost MXN$33'000,000 and a lot of suspicion.

* The perceived notion that sponsors use it as a way to deduce taxes as the Teletón takes place at the end of the fiscal year and therefore allows companies to deduce their donations before declaring their incomes to the SHCP, when most citizens don't do it.

ee also

* Telethon

External links

* [http://www.teleton.org.mx/ Official Website - Teletón México]
* [http://www.teleton.cl/oritel/info.htm ORITEL - Organización Internacional de Teletones] (Pan-Latin-American organisation which Teletón Mexico is a part of)