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

[alexf0x.livejournal.com]

To make a visual story work you first need interesting characters, then a good story. These have neither, they are neither appealing and nor is the story interesting, it all very design by committee in other words bland boring and stupid. No kid, or adult is buying it.

I could even say that it's something of a self insult too to closely associate these two with the British steel industry*, something that has been in massive decline for decades. It just says "welcome to the UK, all we have is past glory, nostalgia and decline". Urk....

I am willing to bet that for a bottle of booze any furry artist could come up with a better mascot set, and a better back story for them.

*Thinking about it do we even have a steel industry now?