KOSHER FOOD ASSOCIATION DISTRIBUTES 41 AWARDS FOR ADS

BARBARA MURRAY

CHICAGO -- The Kosher Food Distributors Association received more than 70 advertisements in its annual Passover ad contest, and has presented 41 awards for the most appealing, consumer-friendly ads.

First-place winners, by region, included retailers Farm Fresh, Norfolk, Va.; Seven Mile Market, Baltimore; Safeway, Washington; Kroger and Farmer Jack, Detroit; Big Bear, Columbus, Ohio; biggs, Cincinnati; King Soopers and Albertson's, Denver; and Ralphs, Los Angeles.

In the Southeast, Seessel's (Albertson's), Memphis, Tenn., and Kroger, Louisville, Ky., were top winners. In the Northeast, ShopRite in New York State; King's Super Markets, Parsippany, N.J.; Price Chopper, Albany, N.Y.; and Shaw's Supermarkets, Boston, were first-place winners. The categories were black and white, two-color and four-color ads. In addition, there were special awards, won by Kroger, Columbus, Ohio, for children's holiday insert; Kroger, Atlanta, for best-recipe ad; and IGA, Toronto, for best two-side slick.

Also, Seessel's, Memphis, won first place for continuous-ad campaign in black and white, while Hannaford Foods, in New York and Vermont, won for continuous-ad campaign, four-color. A distributor was with each retail winner.

The awards include a certificate for the retailer, $100 to a charity of the retailer's choice and a plaque to the kosher-food distributor who supplied the retailer with the traditional kosher products.

The contest has two goals; to promote the merchandising and sales of kosher foods, and to recognize efforts that best address the needs of the kosher consumer, explained Art Klawans, administrator of the KFDA.

Judges commented, making several suggestions for future ads. For one, the store should be identified on the same page as the kosher food or Passover ad, in case a customer tears out the page and wants to know the location of the store.

"In the past, so-called greeting-card ads, without product or price appearing, were not given high marks," Klawans' statement said. "This year saw several greeting-card motifs combined with product photos and prices. The judges gave high marks to these ads, and commented that they liked being wished a happy holiday, while at the same time, they liked being able to view the product, prices, savings and coupon offers."

Some more advice: "The more departments and categories mentioned in a kosher-food ad, the more the store becomes an attraction to the consumer."