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STORY: UN / UGLY BETTY PRESSER
SOURCE: UNTV / UNICEF
TRT: 1.48
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 8 OCTOBER 2009, NEW YORK CITY/ FILE
FILE – RECENT, NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior UN building
8 OCTOBER 2009, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, dais
3. Wide shot, press
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Elizabeth McKee Gore, Executive Director of Global Partnerships and Nothing But Nets at the United Nations Foundation:
“We are so excited at the UN Foundation that Ugly Betty chose to help Nothing but Nets spread the buzz. Malaria while very serious is a good news story; we are trying to get bed nets over to children under five and refugees across Africa. Nothing but Nets is a global grass roots campaign to get everyone in the country the opportunity to donate ten dollars and send a net and save a life.”
5. Med shot, reporter
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Judith Light, Actor:
“In that story and in that through line of the show in this particular character, it’s not a stretch at all that she would come from a place where she wants to help other people. And so she is trying to change hearts and minds about the way we all relate to each other. So all of a sudden a fashion magazine, where you’d never think that a story like this would work, really works because of this particular character and who she is.”
7. Med shot, reporters
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Ana Ortiz, Actor:
“They are so vulnerable, these children, and especially out there, and when it’s something so simple as a net, any publicity we can bring to it, is wonderful.”
9. Pan right, stars of the show posing with Nothing but Nets T-shirts
FILE - UNICEF - MOMBASA, KENYA, 31 AUGUST 2007
10. Wide shot, women unfurling bednet
11. Med shot, women unfurling bednet
12. Close up, women seen through net
13. Med shot, women and babies observing bednet demonstration
14. Close up bednet distribution
A United Nations-backed campaign to raise awareness about malaria – which claims over one million lives annually – has a starring role on the season premiere of the hit United States television comedy, “Ugly Betty.”
Airing on 16 October, the two-hour special will centre around the efforts by the main character, Betty Suarez, a young woman recently promoted to become the features editor at a fashion magazine, to draw attention to the “Nothing But Nets” scheme.
Under that campaign, the UN Foundation (UNF) seeks to curb the spread of malaria by providing insecticide-treated bed nets, each costing ten dollars, to communities in greatest need.
UNF Director Elizabeth McKee Gore expressed excitement over the show choosing to help the Nothing but Nets campaign “spread the buzz”. She said that malaria, while very serious, “is a good news story” as it gives people the opportunity “to donate ten dollars and send a net and save a life.”
Malaria infects over 500 million people worldwide annually, killing more than one million people, the vast majority of whom are African children.
Judith Light, one of the stars of the show explained that incorporating the Nothing but Nets campaign into the storyline was “not a stretch at all”, as the main character, Betty, is portrayed as someone who “wants to help other people”
Ana Ortiz, who plays Betty’s sister and who recently gave birth to her first child, said that being a new mother has opened her eyes to the need to help vulnerable children around the world, adding that “something so simple as a net, any publicity we can bring to it, is wonderful.”
To date, the campaign, which started in 2006, has resulted in the distribution of more than two million bed nets in Africa, she said, voicing hope that its appearance on the program will generate more interest in preventing the spread of malaria.
“Ugly Betty” is the first-ever television comedy series to be filmed at the UN, and its shooting came about through the world body’s Creative Community Outreach Initiative (CCOI).
