It may have escaped notice by the unromantic among us, But skincare brand Nivea has been owning the romantic aspects of New Year’s Eve in Times Square for two years now, last year going so far as to build a Kiss Platform, covered in the brand’s blue and white trademark colors, from which hosts (and romantic partners) Nick Lachey and Vanessa Minillo could present events to underline the theme, “Make 2010 a Year of Love, Hugs and Kisses.”
The year has apparently gone well for the Lachey-Minillo duo, who became engaged in November. (Lachey was formerly married to Jessica Simpson.) But this New Year’s Eve Nivea is opting to stress real people over celebrities with a Facebook contest, “Kiss the One You Love”, designed to unite couples separated at the holidays for reasons they can’t control.
Launched on December 1 and open for submissions until midnight Dec 20, the contest asks couples to go to the Nivea USA Facebook page, like the sited, and upload the details of their story, including the reasons for their separation and why they should be reunited for a Times Square New Year’s Eve celebration, an optional photo of the couple together, and their contact details.
The contest is open to legal residents of the U.S. 18 or older, but the travel guests they wish to unite with under the lighted ball can apparently come from anywhere in the world. However those guests coming in from foreign parts must either already hold U.S. citizenship or a permanent resident visa or be eligible to enter the country immediately under a visa waiver.
Visitors to the Facebook page can read the submissions and vote for their favorite couple story until midnight Dec. 23. They can vote only once for any given submission, but they can vote for more than one submission. A winner chosen by expert judges based on the popular vote will be posted to the Nivea Facebook page around Dec. 28.
Clicking on a couple’s submission brings up their first names, their geographic locations, and the distance between them. Visitors can also see which couples are currently in first, second or the next five places in the voting. A filterable search shows the most recent additions to the lineup, those with the most or least votes, entries by state, those voted on by Facebook friends, and those separated by the greatest distance.
That last measure seems a bit approximate, since at press time the site is ranking a Massachusetts/Ohio couple higher than one in California and Kazakhstan.
Two pairs of contest winners will get a grand prize package of a three-day, two-night stay in a new York hotel over the holiday, round-trip air travel for both members of the couple, two tickets to the New York Hard Rock New year’s Eve party and a gift card worth $300.
While visitors can only vote once for a specific couple, the Facebook app includes the ability to link to a Twitter feed, post to one’s Facebook wall or forward submissions to get more viral spread of a contestant’s application. The Nivea USA Facebook page currently has about 38,000 likes.
Other than simply bringing the pairs together for a Times Square kiss, Nivea has not yet disclosed its plans for the 2011 New Year’s Eve sponsorship, including the identity of this year’s celebrity couple on the Kiss Platform. However Nivea will be distributing blue and white balloons, hats and other party paraphernalia to the crowds.
As it happens, Nivea’s couples won’t be the only romantics practicing PDA when the ball drops. Online Web site Get Married Media ran a contest in October to find a couple willing to hold their wedding in Times Square on New Year’s Eve in front of 1 million revelers and billions more watching on TV. The contest received 1,600 applications and since choosing its winners has let online visitors to the site vote on everything from the bridal gown and wedding bands to the invitations and wedding cake.
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