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.

[megadog.livejournal.com]

What gets me is that some bunch of pink-shirted strategy-boutiquistes or cluster of policy-wonks have been paid a vast sum of taxpayer's money to focus-group this evident nonsense through their various ideas-infrastructures and off into a whole new intellectual space.

[sabotlours.livejournal.com]

*shudders* Just awful.

[rustyfox.livejournal.com]

At least they don't look like Lisa Simpson sucking off London.

That's about the only positive thing I can think of though.

[avon-deer.livejournal.com]

My views on these games are well known, so I will not bother airing them again.

[scritchwuff.livejournal.com]

LAWL!
What's not to like about CGI anthro butt plugs?

[schnee.livejournal.com]

"The children told us a number of things: they weren't that sold on furry animals and they actually wanted a story," Coe added.

And that's why you shouldn't let children design your characters.

(And what's with the whole "character and backstory" part, anyway? They're supposed to be mascots: draw attention to the games, not away from the games to themselves.)

[greyscar.livejournal.com]

AHHHHH kill them with fire!

[doco.livejournal.com]

The blue one looks like it's just soiled its pants. :)

[keeganfox.livejournal.com]

They've hired Kang and Kodos?

o.O

[shep-shepherd.livejournal.com]

Just when I'd gotten used to the logo, along come (Much?) Wenlock and (Stoke?) Mandeville. I think they are bloody atrocious.

[marston.livejournal.com]

Disappointing. They're not terrible, just bland. They look really cheap and unprofessional too - that metallic texture render might have impressed people fifteen years ago but most home computers can produce better effects now.

Poor guys - I want to like them as characters but all I can see are amorphous blobs.

[rustyfox.livejournal.com]

Actually, having seen the BBC clip and just how abysmally poor previous mascots have been, I was beginning to warm to them. They are a bit different in a not such drastically naff way.

Then Lord Coe started talking patronising bullshit again.

Then I watched the official promotional video. What the hell? Is that an early pre-render or something? Either it looks like an animation, or it looks like a decent computer generated film, but it shouldn't look like neither. It's also meaningless tosh.

[tr-wolf.livejournal.com]

I really don't mind them. I can see what they've gone for though, away from the animal route to something more modern and futuristic and space like.