Thursday, May 20, 2010

Mascot Fight


 I should have known last fall when they unveiled the 2012 Olympic logo. Chunky, ugly, 1980's crap style and colors (surprised they aren't neon)...and I am not sure why but when I see it I think of Saved By the Bell (maybe it reminds me of Screech's t-shirt or something).  I should have known that the mascots would also be horrible.  I thought I was prepared...I was not prepared enough.  Meet Wenlock and Mandeville.




Creepy right?  Doesn't inspire good feeling in me.  I guess the one big eye is supposed to a camera lens...I assume it means something like "Broadcasting to the world" or something but all I can think of is Big Brother always watching.  Especially since it is in London which has one of the highest rates of surveillance cameras per capita in the world. Unblinking, silent (no mouth) and always there watching and judging.  I wouldn't want one of those things in my room...creepy.  Not to mention that Mandeville (the blue accented one) looks like he wet his pants.

Horrible, awful design...I feel bad for all the people in London that will have to see these weird things all over the place for the next couple years.

I loved Canada's Olympic mascots this year...cute, friendly, welcoming.  They made me want to buy t-shirts and stuffed animals and maybe even an art print.  Just when I think Olympic design committees might be on the right path, London goes and totally proves me wrong.






Congratulations London, I think your awfulness even outdid ol' Izzy from the '96 Atlanta Olympics...and that is saying a lot.  At least Izzy looked happy and not like a mute peeping tom. You might want to try to get some of  that £400,000 you spent coming up with the design for Wenlock & Mandeville back, you didn't get your money's worth.  I think the fact that this design came out of more than 40 focus groups kind of proves my point about meetings from last week.

4 comments:

a_plager said...

Wow! I would totally have to agree with you on this! First, I'm impressed with your knowledge and research....as always. Second, I didn't event realize they had all these different Olympic Mascots. Yes very creepy and not welcoming at all. They also somewhat remind me of those new stupid kid cartoons that have no point, like tella-tubbies, not to mention disturbing as well. Hopefully the next Olympic Mascots will make more sense.
Oh, and I can totally see Screech wearing a t-shirt with the 2010 logo! ;-)

Michael said...

I thought the Turino '06 Winter Olympic mascots were bad (a living ice cube and snowball) but at least they made a little sense in context. I agree that they look like a mutated teletubby or maybe one of the monsters on Power Rangers.

Sad thing is that I never even watched Saved by the Bell. I think I saw two complete episodes besides whatever was on while flipping through channels...but when I saw that logo I just flashed to Screech.

Cameron Ted said...

looks like Plankton from Sponge Bob...

Michael said...

ha ha...they ARE evil. Oh, maybe they will have all kinds of antics where they try to steal crabby patties from the athletes.