Know that BrittBevis from Britain does "comping", we call ourselves contestors here. Interesting to hear that slogan contests are alive and doing well there. In Canada there isn't much of that in the contesting world, just the regular luck of the draw type. We also don't pay any taxes on our wins.
Cathy from Canada :O)
I remember the days of those consumer products contests...I grew up in the era just a little bit after the time in which this story is set. My main coming of age was in the 1960s, and contests and sweepstakes where contenstants would enter an idea--a jingle, a slogan, whatever, and not a mere entry form w/ name and address--were still alive and well at that time. I had ideas and would've entered a lot of contests if I could have. The problem is, most of these contests were not open to children. I was surprised to learn that Evelyn Ryan entered so many contests under the name of her kids. It seemed like most of the ones I heard of were limited to people over 18. I probably would not have won anyway. I imagine that most contestant winners of this kind were very much like Evelyn---had it down to a fine science and used a methodic, multi-entry system.
My mother had no interest in these kinds of contests. If anything, she had mild disdain for corporate commercialism; I remember her chastising us if we absent-mindedly sang commercial jingles. She did get into S&H green stamps though. Anyone remember those? Many is the weekend or night I remember as a child sitting at the long kitchen table pasting those stamps into the coupon books. I was slow to catch on that I was going to get anything out of it personally.
I did have a letter I sent in to a newspaper selected as the best response to a question to female readers on what makes a good husband. Even that got detracted from, however, due to a technicality. The paper was one geared to a minority community, and I only happened to see it because the office subscribed to it, among others, and I was stuck on a make-work assignment where I had to go through the various papers and write up a daily local news summary. It was utterly tedious and entering the "contest" was a small way of breaking up the monotony a bit. A couple of days later, I got a call from an editor asking when my husband and I could come down to their office to pose for a photo that they planned to run alongside my letter. I was told at the time my letter was selected as the only one they would feature, but when they discovered my husband and I are not in a minority ethnic group, the plan changed. We did have our photo taken, but there was only part of a sentence taken from my letter used in the caption. 2 or 3 other couples were featured along w/ a photo and excerpts of from their letters...a lot more text than my letter was given. It was OK though; from the editor's perspective, I think it was the right policy decision, and I know that before my identity was known, my letter impressed the editor the most. There was no prize anyway other than the "honor" of being selected. But my husband was very touched by it and took me out to dinner.
This is an interesting thread!
I grew up in the 1950s'/60's so the film was set in an era I remember and can strongly identify with.
My mother loved writing little ditties for various contests, and won a few prizes, including 3 months supply of frozen food and a bicycle for my little sister.
She also sent off for lots of freebie special offers, and I can remember Fyffe Banana flutes and Ovaltine mugs.
There were some wonderfully nutty promotions, like the Fairy Snowman, who was a man dressed up as a snowman, and called at people's homes with cash prizes. You had to have a packet of Fairy Snow washing powder at hand, if you wanted to win.
One comp (competition) I recall my mother writing a jingle for, was Murray Mints (the "too-good-to-hurry mints", as their advertising slogan went). You had to come up with an apt name for the cartoon soldier of the TV adverts, who was 'idle on parade', becuase he was too busy chewing his Murray Mints).
She came up with General Mint-gomery. But I think she didn't win, because the rank was too high for the Private. The winning entry was Adam Goodmint!
Some things you never forget...
My own contesting 'career' began in 1983, and I have won several hundreds of £'s worth of prizes. I have enormous admiration for Evelyn Ryan, because I know only too well, how hard it can be to win consistently.
She was one-in-a-million!