The lovely Miss Kristi captured the essence of Hirshfield’s…make your houses look great with Hirshfield’s paint! Plus, we do make the best paint in Minnesota. The girl is a marketing genius!

Kristi participated in the Kids Ad Design Project sponsored once again by the Brainerd Dispatch. The Dispatch showcased the work of these future “Mad Men and Women” in their paper on October 29, 2010. Congratulations to all of this year’s winners.

Linda Hurst of the Dispatch shares the history of the Kids Ad Design Project:

“All of the ads are done by area 4th and 5th grade kids in Brainerd, Nisswa and Pillager.  We’ve been doing this several years now so the teachers have gotten to the point where they incorporate this program into their lesson plan.

Each classroom is assigned a specific advertiser.  We (or a rep from the business) go into the classroom to talk to the kids about advertising guidelines in general – elements to include, design and layout considerations.  Then we talk about the specific business and what types of goods or services are sold.  As we like to tell the kids, it’s not always the best drawing that wins – it’s the message.

The kids have a few weeks to come up with their ads before we pick them up and deliver them back to the business.  Each advertiser gets 15-25 ads to choose from.  They select the winning ad to print.

From the ads chosen to print, the Dispatch selects a first, second and third place overall winner from each grade.  Those kids win prizes (such as water park passes, $100 gift card to Target, etc.).”

Linda said out of everything they do at the Dispatch this is her favorite.