# St. Nicholas/Volume 32/Number 2/Advertisements/Back/Advertising Competition

St. Nicholas League Advertising Competition No. 42. A Competition that is ABSOLUTELY NEW.
All the advertising competitions printed in St. Nicholas have practically been planned to teach the St. Nicholas readers how to advertise. This object has been accomplished. The recent contests show that the young workers have learned what advertising means.
Now we feel that it might become tiresome to have the same kind of competition month after month, and, since their instructive purpose has been fulfilled, let us have something new. A bird that has learned to fly does not wish to return to the nest; a baby that has mastered the art of walking never wants to creep; even our patient St. Nicholas competitors, having learned how to make good advertisements, have perhaps begun to wish for a change, The former prizes have been simply little stimulants, administered like spoonfuls of a tonic, to interest and encourage the young advertisers.
In this new field we are going to offer prizes of substantial value for more advanced work.
Every school in the United States is invited to send in answers to the one hundred questions printed below.
There is no restriction as to obtaining aid in answering the questions; on the contrary, each school is urged to secure the help of any one who is interested in their winning one of the prizes offered for the answers.
Teachers and parents and grown-up friends are asked to help their children to win the principal prize. The answers must be submitted in the name of the teacher, but any prize won shall belong to the school, until some other disposition is made of it.
The following are the Prizes:
FIRST PRIZE—The Century Dictionary, Cyclopedia, and Atlas, bound in ¾ morocco, 10 volumes, not obtainable even through clubbing rates at less than $90.
SECOND PRIZE—The same set, but bound in ½ morocco, value more than $60.
THIRD PRIZE—Books, to be selected from the catalogue of The Century Co., at the prices there given to the value of $30.00.
FOURTH PRIZE—Ten subscriptions to St. Nicholas for one year to any ten addresses of scholars in the competing school.
FIFTH PRIZE—Eight subscriptions as above.
SIXTH PRIZE—Six subscriptions as above.
SEVENTH PRIZE—Four subscriptions as above.
EIGHTH PRIZE—Two subscriptions as above.
NINTH PRIZE—One subscription as above.
TENTH PRIZE—One subscription as above.
It must be understood that every competing paper must be submitted in behalf of a school situated in the United States. Answer must be submitted before January 25, 1905,
As the purpose of this competition is to show the breadth of the field covered by modern advertising, with each set of one hundred answers to the one hundred questions must be sent in one hundred printed advertisements, each one of which must be related to the subject of one of the questions.
Thus in addition to answering question No. 1, in regard to the proportion of water in the human body, it is necessary to send an advertisement relating to drinking-water, table-waters, distilled water, or some other closely related subject. This advertisement may be clipped from any periodical, and should be numbered “No. 1” to correspond with the question to which it refers.
The choice of these advertisements and their value as illustrating the answer will be considered in awarding prizes. Competitors may he glad to know that they can obtain either the advertisements or any information about them by writing to those who deal in the manufactured goods.
We repeat that assistance may be obtained from any one in answering the question. But each answer must be accompanied by a printed advertisement relating to its subject. This advertisement must be sent in complete. It is suggested that a slip of paper be gummed to the advertisement and that the question (which need not be copied on the slip) be answered thereon.
Thus, a set of competing answers would be as follows:
I. A statement signed by the teacher of the school that the answers are submitted on behalf of the school, giving its name and address,
II. A set of one hundred advertisements to each of which is attached a numbered answer to one of the hundred questions.
“A CENTURY OF QUESTIONS.”
Report on Advertising Competition No. 40.
The idea of this competition was to relate the experiences of the family of Uptodates with modern advertised articles; also to invent acharacter, a member of the Uptodate family, which would be unique and would advertisean especial article, as the “Belle Chocolatière” advertises Baker’s Chocolate
It is by Geddes Smith and received the first prize:
THE STORY OF THE UPTODATES.
This is excellent, you see, in the swing of the meter, and in the name of the advertised article coming in as a refrain at the end of every verse, making it almost impossible to forget that they “use an Elgin.”
It is a pity that each verse could not have been illustrated by the author with appropriate pictures, but we must not expect too much.
Another verse by Alma E. Barger was very good in its directness, and the meter is good also, except in the third line, where she found the name Royal Baking Powder rather hard to work in.
There is something very amusing about the following bright little jingle:
Perhaps the vagueness of the last line adds tothe interest, and this, combined with theromantic name of Rowena, is really very funny.
The following verse by Jennie Bockelman,which took a second prize, is good advertising, because it makes Lowney’s Cocoa sound very attractive; but we would suggest that it would have been better to have made a pretty little cook instead of the ignorant, vulgar-looking woman in her picture. This, too, would have carried out the idea better as showing that she was a woman of good sense.
LOWNEY’S COCOA.
Mrs, Uptodate’s attitude of tearful entreaty in the illustration is very well drawn, and we congratulate the artist upon the arrangement of the figures in her picture.
The advertisement of Sorosis shoes by Iris Heap, in which a mother punishes her little girl by not allowing her to wear her Sorosis shoes for two days, suggests very cleverly the ease and comfort of those shoes.
An advertisement submitted by Helen Reeder, where the two people go out to skate, and come home half frozen, suggests an awful fate when Miss Margarita Uptodate advises John to “take Lowney’s ere it is too late.” We shudder to ask too late for what? Perhaps Lowney’s Cocoa was the means of saving the life of the unfortunate, frozen John!
The following verse, and the picture of a neat, shining kitchen which accompanied it, is a good advertisement because it makes the reader feel the benefit of having the housework all done so quickly and so well. The meter is not very correct, and if the composer had beat time to her verse it would have helpedher to obtain a good meter.
A few words of advice to the young competitors may prove useful.
Some of the answers of only two or three lines were more interesting and better advertising than others of pages long. Remember that literature is not desired, but simple, good, practical advertisements that could be printed on a page of a magazine. Meter is more important than rhyming, and if you cannot combine them write in blank verse. Be careful to avoid vulgar expressions and objectionable ​
slang, so that your advertisements may appeal to people of gaod breeding.
It is with pleasure that we welcome among the prize-winners an English competitor.
On the whole, this competition has proved interesting and, we hope, of real value in training the St. Nicholas readers in the great art of good advertising.
Prize-Winners in Competition No. 40.
Five First Prizes of Five Dollars Each.
       Geddes Smith (14), Orange, N. J.
       Ella E. Preston (16), Davenport, Iowa.
       Agnes Cole (16), Elizabeth, N. J.
       Alma E. Barger (14), New York City.
       Shirley Willis (16), St. Louis, Mo.
Five Second Prizes of Three Dollars Each:
       Jennie Bockelman (15), Atlantic City, N. J. ::Olive E. Lane (14), Bristol, Conn.
       Margaret W. Peck (14), Bristol, Conn,
       Katherine Gay (13), New York City.
       Helen G. Waterman (13), San Diego, Cal.
Five Third Prizes of Two Dollars Each:
       Florence Hanawalt (15), Chicago, Ill,
       Kate Sprague De Wolf (15), Jersey City, N. J.
       Dudley T. Fisher, Jr. (14), Columbus, Ohio.
       Annie F, Goldsmith (14), Salem, Mass.
       Hazel Pike (51), Santa Barbara, Cal
Fourth Prizes of One Dollar Each:
       Mildred 8, Copeland (16), New York City.
       Blanche Leeming (14), Michigan City, Ind.
       Ethel B. Greig (16), P. Q., Canada.
       Iris Heap (13), Landon, England.
       Elizabeth Stockton (15), Bristol, Conn,