 "Photo: Olivia Tang/The Daily Northwestern")
By Lauren Levy The Daily Northwestern
Students passing The Rock this week will have some new scenery to stare at: two students trying to "live large" in a Chevy subcompact car.
SESP sophomore Neal Sales-Griffin and McCormick sophomore Mario Montes Sujo have been living in the car since Monday as part of the Chevrolet Aveo "Livin' Large" Campus Challenge. The pair is competing through Friday against teams from seven other colleges, including Boston University and the University of Florida.
In order to win, each pair needs to stay in constant contact with their vehicle for five days while attracting as much live and online attention as possible with creativity and "silliness," Sales-Griffin said. They also need fellow students to vote for them on the Livin' Large in Aveo Web site.
If the pair racks up enough votes and prove their "livin' large" credentials, both participants and Northwestern will win a 2007 Chevrolet Aveo.
"I'm a pretty goofy guy," Sales-Griffin said. "I never really had a chance to be on reality TV, so I was like, 'Hey, it's interesting. You can win a car. That's pretty cool. I'll just give a stab at it.' "
On the Web site, students can check the progress of the teams, each of which has a blog and a Webcam.
After day two, Sales-Griffin and Sujo were in a tie for second, with 17 percent of all votes.
The two NU students applied for the challenge after Sales-Griffin received an e-mail about it. Students in the Medill Integrated Marketing Communications program - who are involved with the Chevrolet campaign - asked him to market the event as the president of his residential college. He decided he would apply to participate in the challenge, too.
When Sales-Griffin saw that each applicant needed a partner, he asked Sujo.
"It was kind of random, we weren't especially good friends, but we were cool. We lived in the same dorm, and he likes cars and I like being silly," Sales-Griffin said.
"I feel like you couldn't have chosen two other guys that would be crazy enough to live in a car for a week," Sujo said.
Each day a daily challenge is posted on the Web site for each team to complete before the day is over. On Monday, the challenge was to have as many people as possible touch the car at once. Sales-Griffin and Sujo had about 100 people, according to their blog. Tuesday's challenge was to collect non-perishable food items for a local charity.
Besides daily challenges, Sales-Griffin and Sujo said they have been nervous about programming. They have been working hard to bring out as many NU groups as possible to show the pair "livin' large," including the drumline, dance groups, local bands and a cappella groups. Sales-Griffin's barber even cut people's hair in front of the car on Monday.
In order to win, Sales-Griffin said he must digitally appeal to all of his viewers across the country and even the world.
"We have to find a way to get people to vote for NU, so having events that will make us look random or goofy is good," Sales-Griffin said. "Why not utilize our resources?"
The rules are strict to ensure that the participants actually stay in the car. The pair can only leave their Chevy for classes. They get a 10-minute bathroom break every two hours. Friends must provide food for them. Although sleeping arrangements are hard, the first night wasn't bad, Sujo said.
"We had warm sleeping bags, which were awesome," Sujo said.
Reach Lauren Levy at l-levy@northwestern.edu.
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