The 2012 Olympic Mascots

[lupestripe]

They have just been unveiled and it's another disappointment I'm afraid. They are amorphous blobs of steel, which is highly ironic considering that we hardly have any steel industry left any more. Anyway, there is little exciting from a furry aspect - I was hoping for a cuddly lion myself - but I guess pushing the boundaries is the order of the day.

Wenlock and Mandeville are their names, which at least is quintessentially British I suppose. Apparently, they are set to feature in animated form so there could be a cute factor going on. They are also set to have their own Facebook and Twitter pages which would give them a stronger identity and they already have a back story so clearly the creators are trying to foster a strong sense of characterisation. I don't think this has been done to this extent before in this field of mascotting.

So perhaps they will grow on me like the 2012 Olympic logo has. I see parallels with Monsters Inc so perhaps it could work out well in the end. I guess we will wait and see.

news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olympic_games/london_2012/8690467.stm

Comments

[kiwihunter8.livejournal.com]

I live in Atlanta, GA, and did during the Olympics then and when 'Whatizit' was revealed. I remember talking over the water cooler at how sad and pathetic it was. Wenlock and Mandeville don't seem nearly as bad to me, but being furry I would have prefered some kind of wildlife too.

[lastres0rt.livejournal.com]

The video really screams irony to me; they don't seem to get that the popular, time-tested mascots ARE freakin' animals (Mischa, etc.), not amorphous alien crap.

The only difference between London's Mascots and Atlanta's is that theirs are SHINY~ @w@. Also, I preferred Blaze (Atlanta's Paralympic Mascot), which thankfully wasn't cut from the same cloth as Izzy.