First advertising experience

My first encounter with the ad industry happened during 5th grade at Audubon Elementary School. I entered the annual Design An Ad contest sponsored by FLORIDA TODAY’s Newspaper in Education department and Paradise Ford. My ad for Paradise Ford was simple - I have limited drawing skills so I used stick figures for people but they had great facial expressions. My mother might have a copy of my winning ad somewhere and if I ever find it I will scan it and post it onto this blog. I can give a very detailed description since I remember this like it was yesterday.

I remember my tag line read "Steer yourself in the right direction and come to Paradise Ford"
I did do a pretty accurate drawing of the Paradise Ford logo (the logo featured on the right is a newer logo and a bit more busy and detailed than the one I had to draw.) and my main image was of a fork in the road where if you turn right, you drive to Paradise Ford, and to the left you would drive into "The other guys." Then I had two vehicles - one on the road that split left and one on the road that split right. The one on the Paradise Ford road had a decently drawn car and a stick person with a big smile on his face. The other car on the other guys' road had a tire that fell off and was rolling down the road and the stick figure had a very angry face with his arms waving in a rage.

Each participating business was able to personally select the ads appearing in Today’s special section. All students whose ads appeared in this section received a $50.00 savings bond and a framed certificate of participation at a reception held at Gannett Plaza. That was my first taste of advertising success and clearly a foreboding experience!

Important lesson learned: I love advertising!