New York City holds condom contest to ‘keep people excited’

NEW YORK — New York City wants to “keep people excited” about safe sex, and is sponsoring a contest for the design of the wrapper for the city’s next official condom.

The city health department is inviting the public to submit suggestions for a special limited-edition design. The winning art will be featured on several hundred thousand official condom wrappers.

Officials say the artwork must not be raunchy and can’t include copyrighted or trademarked images. No Empire State Building images, please. Entries are due by Jan. 22. The winning design will be selected by online voting.

The mayor’s office gives away more than 40 million of the free condoms a year.

This story was originally published December 17, 2009 at 12:00 AM with the headline "New York City holds condom contest to ‘keep people excited’."