Peeps diorama contest tackles politics, pop culture
The Washington Post has selected the winner of its annual Peeps Diorama Contest, a competition in which participants construct a three-dimensional scene of their choosing using the Easter-themed marshmallow candy "Peeps."
"It's always fun to see what people come up with and how creative they can be, and just sort of where their minds went," said Veronica Toney, a digital editor at the Washington Post.
This year, entries ran the gamut, tackling topics from Kim Kardashian's now-infamous "Paper" magazine cover to Abraham Lincoln's assassination to the seemingly-frequent security breaches at the White House.
The paper received more than 400 entries this year, and the Post winnowed the field down to 50 finalists.
The pool of submissions always contains a few surprises, and this year, one surprise was the relative popularity of Kim Kardashian-inspired dioramas.
"We actually ended up with five different versions of this one, but this one really stood out and captured it - I mean, look at her eyes," Toney said, gesturing at one of the diorama finalists that included a depiction of Kardashian.
"Wait a minute, I'm sorry - did I hear you correctly? Five people submitted a Kim Kardashian-themed diorama?" asked CBS News' Mark Albert.
"Yes, it was on people's minds this year," said Toney.
One entry, called White House Trespeepers, showcased recent security breaches at the White House - from the time Tareq and Michaela Salahi crashed a White House party in 2009 without being invited, to a more recent incident earlier this year in which a drone crashed on the grounds of the executive mansion.
Another diorama that showcased the assassination of Abraham Lincoln proved too grisly for some.
"You can see there's a bit of blood," said Toney. "It's very morbid."
The winners of this year's contest, from Becky Heaton and Susan Maher, have entered the contest six times, and they're thrilled they finally won. Their creation features 12 peeps hiding in plain sight.
"A lot of people like to play hidden object games, and it's very popular," explained Heaton. "So this is kind of the same theme, except they're all Peeps."
This is the ninth year the contest has been held, and the winning entries go on display at National Harbor, Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C., beginning this weekend.
CBS News' Mark Albert contributed to this report.