Radio stars (Dec 1938)

RADIO STARS CERTAINLY WAS LUCKY WHEN I MARRIED YOU! ARE RADIO CONTESTS ON THE LEVEL? (Continued from page 31) Now — read her secret FRANCOAMERICAN Spaghetti is one of my best helps," she'll tell you. It means tasty, appetizing meals without long hours in the kitchen. It means being able to serve cheaper meat cuts and left-overs and get compliments 00 them! It means a nourishing hot lunch for | the children in next to no time. Its zestful, savory cheese-and-tomato sauce makes FrancoAmerican far superior to ordinary ready-cooked spaghetti. Try it. Franco-American SPAGHETTI Made by the Makers of Campbell's Soups £e*idfol FREE %ecifie> J?at>£ Campbell Soup Company, Dept. 6312 Camden. New Jersey. Please send me your free recipe book: "30 Tempting Spaghetti Meals." Name (print). Address City _ will understand why I have purchased for my married daughter the machine of one of your competitors. Yours very truly, (Signature)" Thus, it seems that men and women, unlettered or of obvious refinement, feel equally a sense of having been cheated if do not win a prize, particularly if the names and addresses of the winners are not known to them. That is why sponsors make a practice now of announcing the highest winners on the air and publishing the rest of them in their newspaper or magazine advertisements. Or, better still, they mail a list of the winners to every contestant. Good-will toward the product must be maintained, otherwise the contest fails to attain its goal, no matter what vast publicity it may have brought. That is why most sponsors announce, nowadays, that their contests will be judged by a professional judging service which assures the entrant of efficiency and impartiality. The most widely-known of these professional contest services is the Reuben H. Donnelley Corporation of New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. This company, which has judged many of the largest and most successful contests on the air, has a system of judging which inspires confidence in both sponsor and contestant. First, every entry is actually judged, thus allaying the suspicion that winning entries are "pulled out of a hat." Second, the element of human misjudgment is minimized through setting up a standard pattern against which entries are measured and rated. Third, judging is done as speedily as possible. Donnelley's has such an extensive organization that prompt selection of the winning entries, an important point with the contestants, is guaranteed. Recently, Donnelley's handled 250,000 entries within four days. Let us see in detail just how this work is handled to assure fairness and impartiality. The procedure has two phases: (1) the purely mechanical operations and (2) the actual grading and judging process. The mechanical operations are handled economically when laid out for straight line production. As the mail comes from the post office, it passes down a production line in which each operator performs a pre-determined operation involving certain steps, which, of course, vary with the different types of contests. The following staff instructions would be typical of a slogan contest requiring proof of purchase with dealer's name on an official entry blank : ( 1 ) Face all addresses one way and sort by state. (This operation is omitted if the sponsor does not require an analysis of results by state or territory.) (2) Open envelopes on opening machine. (3) Remove contents and check for proof of purchase. Where proof of purchase is omitted, stamp the entry blank "N.P.P." (No proof of purchase). (This provides legal proof of ineligibility.) (4) Cut off all the entry blank except the section covering the contest entry, con testant's name and dealer's name. (This is to speed up the subsequent handling and sorting. The entry blank should be designed to permit this treatment.) (5) Assort alphabetically, by name of contestant, and stamp all multiple entries "Dup." (This avoids mailing more than one acknowledgment to each contestant. The operation may be omitted where no acknowledgment or list of winners is to be sent, but it is advisable to send such a list.) (6) Address envelopes for acknowledging entries or for mailing of winner lists. (7) Re-file all entries by last word of slogan. (This brings duplicate entries together. ) (8) Subdivide each group of "last word" duplicates into next-to-last word. Where necessary, file to third word to identify all exact duplications. In this manner, the strictly mechanical portion of the job is completed and the entries are now ready for judging. A pattern is set up, a chart of checking points, against which each entry is measured. A typical chart for the preliminary sorting of entries looks something like this : Pre-requisites : 1. Must not contain more than 000 words. 2. Must mention name of product. (Assuming this to be specified in contest rules.) Give credit for the following : 3. Soundness of thought. 4. Pertinence. 5. Conciseness. 6. Intermediate rhyme. 7. Alliteration. 8. Pun. 9. Unusual swing or lilt. 10. Any original or unusual thought. From this chart, the "Primary Judges," as they are called, discard the obviously unfit and ineligible entries and pass to the "Junior Judges" all entries which have even the slightest chance to win. The Primary Judges are liberal in their judgment, and always give the contestant the benefit of a doubt. The Junior Judges are young men and women with special training in English. They continue the process of discarding the poorest entries until they have reduced the total number of approved entries to approximately three times the total number of prizes offered. From now on, each surviving entry blank requires a permanently attached "Rating Sheet." This Rating Sheet itemizes the points which will be considered by the "Senior Judges" in evaluating each entry. Here is a typical Rating Sheet for a slogan contest — bearing in mind that the prerequisites of product-mention and other factors have already been considered : Rating Sheet 1. Conciseness. (Not the minimum number of words but rather the minimum number used to convey the thought. 12 words, in some cases, might be more concise than 6.) 2. Lucidity. (Clarity of expression and meaning. ) 3. Human interest. 52