Ad Awards

Last week in Cambridge, Mass., Dean Wallace Brett Donham of the Graduate School of Business Administration of Harvard University announced the Harvard Advertising Awards for 1925.*

The chief prize (gold medal) was given "for distinguished personal service in advertising" to Ernest Elmo Calkins, President of Calkins & Holden, Manhattan agency. Originally a printer, Mr. Calkins studied art because he knew that good typography must follow the principles of design. In 1902 he went into partnership with Ralph Holden. Together they worked out the first complete advertising campaign ever produced?with typewritten outline, sketches and exhibits. They organized a special art department, a special typographic department, necessitities that are axiomatic now. They wrote the first book on the new advertising practice, Modern Advertising.? Mr. Calkins has been writing on his subject in Scribners' the Atlantic Monthly, the Advertising and Selling Fortnightly and elsewhere, has been lecturing, has ever held himself available to any earnest student whom his piled up knowledge might benefit. The award recognizes "his efforts in raising the standards of advertising, both as to planning and execution, his integrity in the profession, and his unselfish devotion to the younger men with whom he comes in contact."

For the best planning and execution of a national campaign, $2,000 and a certificate went to the Philadelphia agency of Young & Rubicam and the Postum Cereal Co.

The like award went to Joseph Richards Co., Inc., Manhattan agency, for the best local campaign of a manufacturer. They handled the Tide Water Oil Sales Corporation's campaign for "Tydol."

Another like award was given to Pedlar & Ryan, Inc., Manhattan agency, and Ovington's Manhattan specialty store, for the best local retail campaign.

For distinguished individual work three awards of $1,000 and a certificate each were given:

For the ad most effective in the use of text, to Merle Thorpe, editor of Nation's Business, for an ad for that magazine.

For the most effective use of pictorial illustrating, to William D. Humphrey of McKinney, Marsh & Gushing, Inc., Detroit agency, for the Hay's Glove Co. The artist was Roy F. Heinrich of Detroit.

For the best combination of picture and text, to Mrs. Erma Perham Proetz of the Gardner Advertising agency of St. Louis, for a "Pet Milk" ad. The artist was Andrew Loomis of Chicago.

A certificate and $2,000 in cash went to H. G. Weaver of General Motors. He indexed every county in the U. S. as to effective consumer-power, to insure economy and efficiency of advertising.

The Jury of Awards decided on these recognitions last January. It was made up of: Henry J. Allen, onetime Governor of Kansas, owner and publisher of the Wichita Beacon; Bruce Barton of Barton, Durstine & Osborn, Inc., advertising agency of Manhattan; Neil H. Borden, Assistant Professor of Advertising in the Harvard Business School; Dr. M. T. Copeland, Professor of Marketing in the Harvard Business School; Mac Martin, President of the Mac Martin Advertising Agency of Minneapolis; Malcolm Muir, Vice President and Chairman of the Sales Board of the McGraw-Hill Co., publishers of Manhattan; Stanley Resor, President of the J. Walter Thompson Co., advertising agency of Manhattan; Tim Thrift, Advertising Manager of the American Multigraph Sales Company of Cleveland; C. K. Woodbridge, President of the Associated Advertising Clubs of the World, and President of the Dictaphone Corporation of New York.

Not all advertising men look with respect at these awards. In Manhattan the George Batten Co., Inc., is an advertising agency highly respected, of strong individuality, with a background of many successful campaigns extending over years and with a solid client?.** It considers the submission of advertising samples to the Harvard Advertising Awards an undignified scramble for a vicarious recognition which advertising results alone should truly give.

This opinion it frankly, bluntly stated in a two-page paid ad in Printers' Ink (Feb. 11), trade publication: "For one thing, this award business is too much of a sure-bet thing for the donor [Mr. Bok]. Whoever wins or loses, the donor gets his meed of personal advertising and public acclaim. ... If you view advertising as we do?as the moulding of favorable opinion for an article or service?how would you like to sit on a jury to judge the advertisement that performed the greatest amount of moulding? ... If, while we are winning prizes in industry for our clients, the Harvard Committee desires to come into our midst bestowing awards for the work we have done and are doing?well and good. But we do not feel that it becomes us to bundle up work that belongs to our clients, elbow our way down to the front row, strike an attitude and ask 'How about a prize for us?' The good firms we serve are entitled to know our position on this matter of awards."

*Established in 1923 by Edward William Bok.

?In 1908 Mr. Calkins induced the National Arts Club to hold the first exhibition of advertising art, the precursor of the present annual exhibit of the Art Directors' Club.

**Some of the Batten Co.'s more potent accounts: Hamilton Watch, Colgate & Co., Prophylactic Brush (for teeth), National Lead Co., Larus & Bro. (Edgeworth Smoking Tobacco), Hammermill Bond (writing paper), Cliquot Club (ginger ale).