2012 Olympic Mascots - Wenlock and Mandeville

[Awesome Wells]

From The Guardian:

In the end they were neither animal, vegetable nor mineral. Nor, as some cynics had predicted, did they resemble white elephants.

Instead, Wenlock and Mandeville, the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic mascots, elicited mostly baffled reactions as to just what they were at their unveiling today.

With a metallic finish, a single large eye made out of a camera lens, a London taxi light on their heads and the Olympic rings represented as friendship bracelets on their wrists, they resemble characters dreamed up for a Pixar animation.

But London 2012 organisers, for whom the launch of the mascots marks the start of a crucial period in which the games will become public property, pointed to the delighted reaction of a hall full of primary school children at today's launch as evidence that they would connect with their target audience.

"They remind you of aliens, which is really weird and cool," said 10-year-old Ali. "It reminds you of the Olympics, which is worldwide so it's something you'll want to remember forever," added 11-year-old Zanyab as they cavorted with life-size mascots for the cameras.

The pair are based on a short story by children's author Michael Morpurgo that tells how they were fashioned from droplets of the steel used to build the Olympic stadium. They will be crucial in raising funds and spreading messages about the games.

Wenlock, named after the Shropshire town of Much Wenlock that helped inspire Pierre de Coubertin to launch the modern Olympics, and Mandeville, inspired by the Buckinghamshire town where the Paralympics were founded, will become very familiar over the next two years.

The chairman of the London organising committee of the Olympic games (Locog), Lord Coe, said the mascots were aimed squarely at children and designed with the digital age in mind. He said they had the most positive reaction in workshops to road test them.

Among the designs rejected at the start of an open pitch process were anthropomorphic pigeons, an animated tea pot and a Big Ben with arms and legs.

Children will be encouraged to interact with the characters, inviting them via Facebook, Twitter and the web to visit their school and, said Coe, inspiring them to take up different sports.

"The story itself is very rooted in the nations and regions. Young people will be able to decide where they go, what sports they pick up. There is a real interactivity there, it is a language and a flexibility that is driven by young people," he said.

The pair were introduced in an animated film that followed their story from the Bolton steelworks where the frame of the Olympic stadium was made. They will become a range of up to 30 cuddly toys, including versions based on celebrities and sports stars, as well as adorning badges, T-shirts, mugs and more.

Organisers hope Wenlock and Mandeville will rank alongside the more fondly remembered mascots, such as Waldi the dachshund from the 1972 Berlin games and Misha the bear from the 1980 Moscow Olympics – rather than the much maligned Izzy of Atlanta 1996.

"The games have got a few stupendous assets – the mascot, tickets, the volunteers, the torch relay – and you have got to really use those to bring home your key messages," said Locog's chief executive, Paul Deighton.

"If you link them together you begin to have a really powerful story that people will respond to."

The unveiling of the bold London Olympics logo in 2007 was controversial, with many criticising its graffiti-like design. Organisers, who hired Wolff Olins at a cost of £400,000 to design it, stood firm, arguing that it was supremely adaptable and perfect for the digital age. But they were forced to withdraw a launch film after it emerged that it had the potential to trigger epileptic seizures.

The mascots, conceived by London design agency Iris and costing, said Deighton, just "a few thousand pounds", are an important staging post from a financial and marketing point of view. They will pour up to £15m into the coffers of the organising committee via dozens of licensing deals, part of an overall licensing target of £70m to £80m towards Locog's £2bn privately raised budget.

In 1984, the LA games ushered in the money-spinning Olympic era. The event was the first to use its Disney-designed mascot to raise funds, since when they have become a cash cow for organisers.

But the story behind the mascots is also designed to help make the Olympics relevant to the whole nation. That will be crucial if organisers are to maintain support for a project that is also costing the public £9.3bn, particularly as cuts in public services begin to bite.

After a spell of behind-the-scenes work devoted to raising £700m in sponsorship revenues, Locog is entering a more public phase when everything it does, from the unveiling of the mascot to its ticket pricing policy, will come under scrutiny.

Brilliant or shit?

[Lissa]

They are exactly what you would expect given that they wouldn't be allowed to have any shred of race, gender, nationality or history in their design in case it "offends" anyone. They are what they are - Alpha Centauri's god children in shell suits, designed by soulless advertising people and destined to be the least cool thing a child could be seen with/wearing well before 2012.

[Milky Tears]

They're better than I expected...






although Wenlock is a tool!

[Captain Tancredi]

Surely the first mascots ever designed specifically to look good as beer bottle openers.

[SiHart]

the story behind the mascots is also designed to help make the Olympics relevant to the whole nation.

I look forward to finding out how the Olympics are relevant to me.

What can you say about these things? They're utterly bizarre. Like strange happy monoids without the hair and with more ridiculous bodies. Who'd have thought that was even possible?

Si xx

[Rob McCow]

They remind me of:



If they are aliens, they are clearly from the Planet WTF in sector OMFG.

[Rob McCow]

B3ta have dedicated a whole challenge to the lovely pair.

http://www.b3ta.com/challenge/olympicmascots/popular/

Of which my current favourite is:

[WhiteCrowNZ]

Wouldn't it have been funnier if they'd just used the Tellytubbies?

They look shit compared to how cool China made it's monkey-themed titles (although were they official mascots?).

[Dino]

It's the olympics! Involving things that involve human endurance, stamina and skills! A lion worked as that had a hunter instinct and even then that was for a World Cup?
There is only one reason that could justify this for me, and that is if these mascots are part of the masterplan to condition human beings to accept and not be afraid of alien life? So they can pretend to make contact, even though it's been made?

If the mascots aren't because of this, then they are even more of an embarrassment. Seriously the worst mascots ever!

[WhiteCrowNZ]

Mandeville sounds too much like Mandelson for me not to be afraid.

[WhiteCrowNZ]

Mascots are funny things. Sometimes I feel I live in a retconned world where everyone has forgotten Toot and Ploot, and Sport Billy.

[Rob McCow]

You say you don't like them now, but watch out. In a few months you won't be able to imagine life without those cheeky little scamps. They'll warm the cockles of your heart they will.

[Perry Vale]

Is 'Street Dance' an Olympic event yet?

[Dino]

I thought of this last night and I'm glad I remembered it just now.
Maybe this is the final victory over the "sports playing sci-fi haters" in schools across the country for many decades? You would never have these remotely considered around the time of McCoy?...

[Larry]

They are exactly what you would expect given that they wouldn't be allowed to have any shred of race, gender, nationality or history in their design in case it "offends" anyone. They are what they are - Alpha Centauri's god children in shell suits, designed by soulless advertising people and destined to be the least cool thing a child could be seen with/wearing well before 2012.

and no doubt they were payed tens of thousands of pounds why the hell couldn't they have just desgined a lion mascot.

[Jon Masters]

I like them

[Larry]

I always thought the Olympic mascot was supposed to represent something that is symbolic of the host country and I can't understand why they couldn't have a lion and bulldog mascot. Lets face it they would of sold much better as cudly toys.

[Si Hunt]

Maybe a bulldog wouldn't have been advisable at a time when aggressive Dogs are frequently in the news for biting kids faces off.

They are okay for what they are, though why have they given one of them a 'cross' eye making him look evil?

I wouldn't take either of them to bed and cuddle them!

Si.

[Lissa]

The people who make children's television franchises seem to be able to create loveable but weird blob creatures at the drop of a hat. Every single thing they've ever put on screen is better than these two cuddly roll-on deodorants. Why didn't they hire someone who knows what they're doing?

Or at the very least keep them as animated characters. Don't dress a couple of out of work actors up and instantly reduce them to bizarre freaks in chavvy leisure wear.

[Stuart Wallis]

The names Wenlock and Mandeville sound not so much like Olympic mascots as highwaymen or gentleman bodysnatchers... They look like shampoo bottles on legs. I'm sick of the Olympics already anyway, so I'm not going to be impressed by these two.

Incidentally, I'd rather like England to win the bid for the 2018 World Cup - the Olympic Stadium might be ready in time for that...

[Dave Tudor]

There are actually people in Much Wenlock who look a bit like those mascots.

[matthewsch]

Can I ask HOW they exactly represent or connect with the 'digital generation' (i.e. the I-generation)?

Someone should burn those awful costumes and replace them with the Tenth Doctor and Rose, or maybe an Isolus and a set of walking crayons?

They'd never do a lion or anything that represents the history of England. Because it would be seen as racist and offensive to all the Arabs, the Asians, etc. who live in England and do not share that history... ggraaarrggghh I HATE political correctness.

[Lissa]

The only thing that could redeem these two is if Ysanne Churchman is hired to do their voices.

[WhiteCrowNZ]

Maybe they're a nod to Doctor Who because of Fear Her?

[Larry]

The people who make children's television franchises seem to be able to create loveable but weird blob creatures at the drop of a hat. Every single thing they've ever put on screen is better than these two cuddly roll-on deodorants. Why didn't they hire someone who knows what they're doing?

Or at the very least keep them as animated characters. Don't dress a couple of out of work actors up and instantly reduce them to bizarre freaks in chavvy leisure wear.

over the last 10 years or so there has been a big fad by many football clubs in the premiership and football League to redesign the club badge. Most if not all club badges show links to their town or cities industry or from the factories where they were originaly formed. But many of the new badges are simply awful they have been designed by people with no sense or understanding of the clubs history and end up being bland and baring no resembelence to the original club badge.