First, a video of strangers kissing took the internet by storm, only it turned out to be an advertisement starring models and actors. Then a filmmaker recreated it with everyday people, and the results were kind of creepy. Not to mention a whole raft of parodies. But what the internet has yet to realize is that this whole kerfuffle was predated by a 2004 advertisement for the Science World museum in Vancouver, British Columbia.
The entire point of the spot is that kissing transmits fewer germs than shaking hands. Of course, to kiss is to press an open mucous membrane into someone else’s, which gives those fewer germs a direct route into the human body. And then there are the diseases you’re much more likely to spread by kissing, such as mononucleosis, HSV-1, and my god can you imagine doing this during cold season?
But if your goal is simply to transmit a smaller number of single-celled organisms, regardless of the effect—go ahead, see if you can get kissing past the no-fun squad in HR.
hat tip Christie Nicholson