Go In to Win!

"Contest gold has all the lure of pirate gold" is a favorite maxim of Wilmer S. Shepherd, founder of the Shepherd Correspondence School of Contest Technique ("the Harvard of contest schools") in Philadelphia. Last week, Wilmer Shepherd was bubbling with pride because one of his students, Mrs. Beatrice A. Zimmer of Modesto, Calif, had won nylons for life in the Sachet Nylon last-line contest. He claims that in 21 years his students, mostly housewives, have won--through radio & TV, magazines, etc.--more than 40,000 prizes valued at $3,000,000.

The $36 Shepherd course consists of 75 highly charged, evangelical lessons ("Go in to win and, to win, go in!"). Lesson Six ("The Big Secret at Last") tells students to relax and "start putting words on paper. Start with the first word that pops into your mind relating to the product. This word will suggest another word. Simply jot them down as they come to you--and keep writing!" Lesson Seven ("Super-Speedway to Stardom") says: 'You must select the words that are to be spun into phrases and the phrases to be spun into entries. You must separate the gold from the copper coins." By Lesson Twelve, students are being coached in such dark mysteries as the use of the "Mystic Three." Says Shepherd: "Even Julius Caesar used a Mystic Three verb cluster when he uttered his famous words: 'I came, I saw, I conquered!'"

Wilmer Shepherd prefers to deal only with what he calls "creative" contests, i.e., slogans, new names, jingles. He won his first contest ($5 and all the ice cream he could eat) at the age of 12. He didn't enter another until he lost his job in 1930 and needed money. He quickly won a Ford, $1,000 in cash and $4,000 in merchandise. Today, his 1,400 students and a bimonthly contest newsletter gross him more than $75,000 a year.

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