WWE Reading Contest

A recent article I read was about a contest sponsored by the wrestling industry. The contest was a reading contest for students believe it or not! World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) is doing its second annual reading contest for teens. The winners receive tickets to Wrestlemania 24. WWE's reading challenge falls at the same time as Teen Read Week. Students who are in grades 7-12 and are members of libraries participating in the contest are eligible. Students are required to read 10 books or magazines and write a short essay by January 17th. The theme for the essay is "Why Wrestlemania Got Me Reading." Ten finalists will be selected who will have the opportunity to attend the annual pro wrestling event.

After reading this promotion I was a little surprised at first that wrestling is being linked to reading and education. It is very interesting to me. However, I think that WWE has done a great job targeting their audience. The main viewers of wrestling are grades 7-12 and that is why this contest received such a large response. More than 1,000 students from 490 libraries wrote essays! That is a great response rate for a contest that requires so much reading and an essay. I would be curious to read the essays of some of the students.

Students were probably very responsive to this contest because if the WWE is advertising it and they like wrestling it must be "cool." All teenagers are typically willing to participate in a contest that pertains to something they have a passion for (wrestling in this case). I never understood the passion or interest in wrestling, but hey, the high response rate of this contest shows my opinion doesn't mean much! The WWE did a great job with this contest and portrayed themselves in a great light by doing something educational.

The article discussed can be found at: http://promomagazine.com/news/wwe_wrestlemania_tix/