Because of the loose submission guidelines, competition entries came in a variety of formats. Within the typed pages of an essay there could exist, for example, hand-drawn illustrations of a sample advertisement, promotional booklets for a specific company or industry, newspaper clippings, or hand-drawn charts and graphs. Some entries contain a small envelope, in which is located the true identity of the entrant as well as his or her honor statement. Some entries were sent via letter to Professor Scott.
The records are divided into 4 main series based on the categories of the competition: Plans for Advertising Campaign, Drawings for Advertisement, Advertising Copy, and Essays. The folders contain one entry each and are arranged alphabetically by entry title. This collection may not contain every submission to the contest over its four-year run. There exist, in this collection, one entry from 1914, four from 1915, seven from 1916, and six from 1917. Because many of the entries were a composite of multiple submission categories, some did not clearly fit the established categories.
Any distinctions given to an entry are noted in parentheses after the title of the entry. First- and second-place prizes were awarded all four years, with the exception of 1916; in that year the judge of the competition felt that there was no clear second-place winner but did assign an honorable mention and awarded $50 to one entry instead.
The advertising competition was held annually from 1914 to 1917 during the winter semester. There was a $500 prize donated to the competition with $300 awarded for first place and $200 awarded for second place. W. K. Kellogg of the Kellogg Company in Battle Creek, Michigan donated the prize money for years 1914-1916 but expressly wished that there be no mention of his name in connection with the donation. The judges were local businessmen in the advertising industry; Harry W. Ford, President of Saxon Motor Company served as judge in 1914 and H. P. Breitenbach of J. Walter Thompson Company served as judge from 1915 to 1917.
Rules and deadlines for the competition were announced in The Michigan Daily at the beginning of the winter semester. The contest was open to all University of Michigan students in good standing. The winners were announced in The Michigan Daily at the end of the contest, which occurred in April or May. There were four possible types of submissions: an overall plan for an advertising campaign, a drawing for an advertisement, advertising copy, or an essay on a specific problem or issue in the field of advertising. Combinations of these options were also accepted. The entries were judged on their ability to be of benefit to the advertising public, with all submissions and ideas within them becoming property of the University of Michigan at the end of the contest. Entries were submitted using pseudonyms of the students' choosing, with attached envelopes containing the student's identity and a self-drafted honor statement, which attested to the originality of the entry. Students were forbidden from accepting help from any established company or organization while working on their entries.
The advertising competition was created by Department of Rhetoric professor Fred Newton Scott, whose personal interests often found a way into his teaching curriculum. Correspondence between Professor Scott and the judges of the competition indicate that he was the official organizer of the contest, although there were two additional Rhetoric professors placed on the committee to distribute the prize money -- T. E. Rankin, and J. R. Brumm.
The advertising competition at the University of Michigan was loosely affiliated with the Department of Rhetoric, which housed the growing field of journalism. While there were no specific courses on advertising offered at the time of the competition, courses in journalism were added to the curriculum in the 1917-1918 school year. The Department of Rhetoric officially became the Department of Rhetoric and Journalism in 1921.
