Condom Design Contest Winner: Power Button, From Queens

Luis Acosta of Kew Gardens is now the Condom King of New York. 15,000 people voted in the Health Department's contest to design a special limited-edition NYC Condom wrapper, and the winner is Acosta's electronic power button. But it was a hard-fought victory, with Acosta's rubber winning by just two percentage points with 23% of the vote. In second place, with 21% of vote, was the Top Hat, followed by the Circle of Condoms and the Manhole Cover. Fittingly, the design of a subway train in a tunnel finished dead last. (Sadly, our Sad Rat condom design didn't even place.) In a statement, a triumphant Acosta said, "I hope my package design reminds people that they’re in control."

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By John Del Signore in News on March 9, 2010 12:17 PM

Comments [rss]

Dan

They are IEC / IEEE symbols:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_symbol

texinyc

Thanks for the link. :)

christinej

Hmm. Didn't anyone notice that this guy copied the image of the Mac power button?

texinyc

The symbol is more of a universal one for most electronics. Look at your stereo or printer, you will probably see the same thing on those power buttons as well.

ed_Extinct

The vector illustration of the train going into the tunnel was the better of them all. This is just a trendy image—would have preferred a more timeless image.

Snoopy

Cervically speaking, it's pretty timeless.

camera_club

yeah big fan of the top hat, too bad

Guest

The power button was my favorite, with the manhole cover running a close second. I don't even remember the circle of condoms.

Radbecca

The sad rat inspires the safest sex of all: Abstinence.

Snoopy

Graphically speaking the winning design is very very good. I just wished they made them in a larger size and better quality.

Think2wice

The manhole cover was better. Gritty, self-effacing, iconographic of the city, with a wink-and-a-nod.

This one is okay, but, as jt10000 put it, ambiguous in it's association with NYC and IMO the power symbol is adolescent (which might actually be the intention).