Anna Johnson said she and her sister Erica practiced holding up a bottle of Benadryl between their lips in the hope that they could walk away with two iPod touch music players Friday afternoon.
When the day of the second annual iPod Kiss-off arrived, the Johnson sisters took their stance amid about 30 other couples and friends to hold up a block of wood with an iPod picture on it using only their lips, taking away the first prize.
“Our strategy was that we are the same height, and that we are comfortable with each other,” said Anna Johnson, a junior in elementary education. “After a while the case got pretty wet and slippery. But we just had to readjust and hold on.”
The University Campus Store and Apple organized and sponsored the Kiss-off competition for students to win money, iPod touch players and a vacation prize. Each couple had to hold the block between them using nothing but their lips, and the team that lasted the longest won two iPod touches, a one-night trip to the Anniversary Inn and other prizes totaling up to $1,000.
The 70 contestants piled into the U Campus Store hoping to win the eight-gigabyte players.
Aubree Anderson, a sophomore in biology, said she was all business the day of the contest.
She paired up with a male friend and focused on winning the prize to avoid the awkward feeling of kissing a fellow student.
“We are naturally good at kissing and don’t need any other preparation,” she said shortly before the Kiss-off began. Anderson was confident in her friend’s ability to kiss, but she and many others soon found out that holding an iPod between two people is difficult because the case soon becomes slippery from condensation.
The U Campus Store held last year’s Kiss-off near Halloween, but this year decided to change the date for Valentine’s Day and change some of the rules as well.
The winners last year managed to keep their iPod off the ground for two hours and 45 minutes, but the Kiss-off organizers decided to make it more challenging this year by making contestants stand a set distant apart and then move from one spot to another at the judge’s command.
To make matters worse, the organizers recruited Alex Boye, a local singer, to emcee the event and harass contestants. Boye joked around with contestants and even poured water on one team in an effort to distract them.
“I try to make them laugh and look at me,” Boye said.
But the Johnson sisters persevered.
The sisters lasted one hour and 16 minutes, winning the contest and leaving all of their opponents with nothing but sore backs and broken dreams.
Anna Johnson said they’ve already converted their music from iPod nanos to touches and plan on spending their free night at the Anniversary Inn with friends.
Thien SokWhen the day of the second annual iPod Kiss-off arrived, the Johnson sisters took their stance amid about 30 other couples and friends to hold up a block of wood with an iPod picture on it using only their lips, taking away the first prize.
Thien SokChantel Garcia and Anthony Quan, kiss an iPod in an attempt to win the iPod kiss off, held Firday at the university campus store. Alex Boulier attempted to distract Garcia and Quan by dancing underneath them.