LEWISTON — Lewiston-Auburn’s online image needs a makeover.

That’s the sentiment behind a new video contest, aiming to insert some positive images of the cities and the Androscoggin region onto YouTube and social media.

“If you go to YouTube and you find Lewiston-Auburn, some of the stuff you get isn’t so good,”  Chip Morrison, executive director of the Androscoggin County Chamber of Commerce, said. “And that’s putting it mildly.”

On Monday, a search for “Lewiston Maine” on YouTube delivered a video titled “Street Punks” as the top choice, a song about bed bugs was second, and a fistfight in Kennedy Park was third. Similar videos pop up in an Auburn search.

“The most savory things don’t pop up on the top of the pile,” Hillary Dow, who co-chairs the chamber’s Regional Image Committee, said. “So we started talking about what we could do to help combat the negative tone that is found.”

Someone suggested a contest. And the idea stuck.

“With the rise of social media, if a concentrated group of folks use positive messages or videos to tell a story of the potential here or the opportunities, and they share that with their network, there’s a real opportunity at a limited cost,” Auburn Mayor Jonathan LaBonte, who sits on the committee, said.

Every day, Internet videos go viral and draw millions of views. Just maybe, a contest entry can do that.

LaBonte said he wants more balance in the way the community and the region is being portrayed.

“We should be willing to admit that we have challenges,” he said. But the area is more than poverty and crime. “Let’s generate content about Lewiston-Auburn that’s positive, that highlights what we have here.”

The contest will kick off May 1 and last all month.

Dow’s committee calls it “Pump up the Positive.”

The top prize is $250. Second prize will be a collection of gift certificates to local businesses worth $200. Third place will receive $100 worth of certificates.

All videos must be positive and last no more than six minutes.

Already people are shooting, Dow said.

One entry — a music video by local ’60s-era band, the Rockin’ Recons — has already been earmarked for the contest. The video, titled “L-A,” features the band members performing a Beach Boys-like song around downtown Lewiston and Auburn.

Dow hopes many videos are coming.

Entries will be accepted until May 30. They’ll be uploaded to a community website where they’ll be voted on during the month of June. Prizes will be awarded at a chamber of commerce breakfast on July 12.

Plans call for a dedicated YouTube channel and a second contest in the fall.

“We’re still trying to combat this bad image, even though there are still so many wonderful things going on,” Dow said. “The more good stuff that’s out there that you can spread virally, the better.”

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