Maria thought it was typical sibling behavior.
“I thought you were being an embarrassing older brother,” she said to WCCO of her brother Adam Martin’s plan.
The two went to a Gophers men’s hockey game against Michigan Friday night – Valentine’s Day. Adam told the station knew there was a good chance the always-popular kiss cam would be scanning the crowd on such a romantic day. And if the siblings ended up on the big video board, he wanted to make sure everyone in attendance knew it wasn’t a date.
So he made a sign: One single white sheet, with the words “My sister” and a big black arrow.
Adam’s hunch was right. When he and Maria popped up on screen, he popped open his homemade sign.
Embarrassing older brother behavior or not, millions of people have seen Adam and Maria now. Tuesday morning, the video had just over 200,000 views on YouTube. About 24 hours later it was up to nearly 3.9 million. If you want to get math nerdy: That means an average of 2,708 people were watching the video during every minute for the past day. Break it down even further, that’s about 45 new views every single second.
National sites like USA Today, Buzzfeed and Time picked up on it, using words like “ingenious” and calling it a “great move.” Even a few international sites, such as the United Kingdom’s Metro and Daily Mail, mentioned it.
All because Adam decided to think ahead and print a single sheet of paper with two words on it. Just in case.
“It was Valentine’s Day and I was taking my sister with me to a hockey game,” Adam told the NY Daily News. “I was not going to be caught off guard. I was sitting next to an attractive woman and I didn’t want people to heckle me (by not kissing her).”
And just for your viewing pleasure here’s a short compilation of other enjoyable kiss cam moments.
