Place Name: First Place Contestant Name: The Cap Times Entry Title: Pixar's 'Turning Red' refuses to panda to young audiences; When the moon hits the sky like a big pizza pie, that's a 'Moonfall'; This Madison’s florist’s dried flowers have real stamen-a Entry Credit: Rob Thomas Judge Comment: The Turning Red headline employs a great use of pun with "refuses to Panda to young audiences" but it falls a little flat after reading the story and not seeing much in the writing that suggests the film doesn't pander to young audiences. It seems a bit like the headline writer had a good pun they wanted to work in and went a bit away from what was actually said in the column to make it work.
The Moonfall headline is great! It's a solid reference to a well-known song, and I found myself singing it in my head as I read it and for a few minutes afterward. It is accurate in relation to the column and the plot of the movie, and gets the reader's attention in a fun, light-hearted way.
The dried flowers headline is another great entry! You've employed a solid pun in "stamen-a" and it is fitting because these dried flower bouquets will last a long while, giving them more "stamina" than a traditional bouquet. Well done.
Place Name: Second Place Contestant Name: The Journal Times Entry Title: An itsy bitsy solar-powered, phone-charging little library; Get your cluck on; Mr. Duncan's Opus Entry Credit: Rachel Kubik, Adam Rogan, Alex Rodriguez, Brenda Wishau Judge Comment: Well, the "Get your cluck on" headline definitely got my attention! It might a be little too risque of a reference for a lot of readers, though.
Mr. Duncan's Opus headline is a great reference to a well-known movie, and it immediately puts the reader into a mindset of a music instructor and his impact on his students and community. A deck headline to give the reader a bit more of an idea of what the story was going to be about would have been helpful, though.
The phone-charging little library headline is a good reference to a well-known song. It slightly misses the mark on the number of syllables in the song lyrics, so it's not one of those headlines that you can actually sing to the song, but it definitely is a fun way to get the idea across about this novel addition to a little free library.
Place Name: Third Place Contestant Name: The Freeman Entry Title: M-V-(re)P(eat); Pool’s Gold; Unbreakable Entry Credit: Michael Grennell Judge Comment: M-V-(re)P(eat) is a clever pun, and the main headline and deck headline each reflect the column content well. It grabs the reader's attention and lets them know what to expect when they read the piece.
Pool's Gold headline is a good pun. Deck headlines are simple, but let the read know what to expect when reading the stories.
Unbreakable headline is good, but lacks some punch as a power head given how small it is. It's also a little bland being just one word.
Place Name: Honorable Mention Contestant Name: Daily News Entry Title: Downhill thrills with no skills; Tap into your German side; Fresh, local, plentiful Entry Credit: Dan Muckelbauer Judge Comment: Downhill thrills with no skills is a great use of rhyme and in keeping with the fun theme of the story. The deck headline, however, includes "participants of all ages" which isn't quite accurate because neither place allows people to ride together with really small children. A substitution for that line of the deck headline that would have been more accurate and would have filled basically the same space would have been "for young and old alike".
On the Oktoberfest headline, the use of the phrase "Tap into your German side" is a very clever nod to the beer aspect of these celebrations.
Fresh, local, plentiful is not a bad headline, but it doesn't particularly grab my attention. I get the idea between it and deck headline that I'm about to read about farmers markets, but other than that, I'm not given any reason to read the story if I didn't already want to read about farmers markets anyway.
Competition Comment: Entries were good overall. A lot of interesting use of puns and pop culture references to illustrate local news, features and sports stories. One thing I'd recommend to all entrants is to remember that writing a catchy headline shouldn't be more important that being accurate about what the story says. A headline's main function is to give the reader a clear idea what they are about to read. When we falter in that goal, we run the risk of making our readers question our judgement or truthfulness.
