Posted on 05/20/2010 1:48:50 PM PDT by nickcarraway
For those experiencing withdrawal two months after the conclusion of the Vancouver Olympics, the unveiling of the mascots for the 2012 Games in London should offer a certain thrill.
For the rest of us, it's an opportunity to poke fun at another craven marketing stunt.
Their names are Wenlock and Mandeville, and man, are they weird.
Unveiled by London Olympic committee chair Sebastien Coe at an East London school on Wednesday, the two figures look like a couple of marshmallows clad in space suits. That's my first impression, anyway. Wenlock (the orange one) and Mandeville (the blue one) each sport only one eye, which is apparently meant to represent a camera lens. OK, fine. So what am I to take from Mandeville's crotchless pants? The IOC's official endorsement of chaps?
As for the names, Wenlock derives his (her? its?) name from the British village of Much Wenlock, where Pierre de Coubertin conceived the idea of the modern Olympics in 1890. Mandeville, on the other hand, is a reference to Stoke Mandeville Hospital, which produced the Paralympic movement.
Not surprisingly, British design experts are outraged. "Patronizing, cretinous infantilism," said one. (British insults are always so deliciously visceral.) Then again, the idea of a sports mascot is typically geared towards kids, anyway. These two eyesores were apparently inspired by a children's story called Out of a Rainbow by author and Officer of the British Empire Michael Morpurgo. Hecklers are making snide references to the Teletubbies, but to me, Wenlock and Mandeville seem like they stepped out of another trippy British children's series: In the Night Garden.
And not one person asked, “What does that have to do with the Olympics?”
I still think the blue and white one looks like it wet itself.
What if those costumes are manned by jihadis? It sure would be an easy way to sneak a bomb vest in! Think about that. At the opening ceremony the olympian is carrying the olympic torch to light the olympic flame in the cauldron and from out of the blue one these mascots runs up screaming “Allah Hu Fubar!!!!” and boom! takes out the torch bearer. Would that make headlines or what!
They’d be too embarrassed to wear those costumes.
They should be named...Politically and Correct
The logo on the chest (?) of the orange one looks like an AK-47 on the left and clenched fist on the lower right.
No it was the Orange Sunshine.
If the terrorists bomb the London Olympics like they did Atlanta, then we will know for sure what causes it.
AWFUL MASCOTS.
for once, I am without words
From Lisa Simpson doing unmentionable things in the logo to a pair of walking sperm, I can't wait for the next deliciously horrid creation to come out of the London 2012 games. Oh, right, now with RAINBOWS!
Gay, psychedelic Gumbies?
I think the clenched fist is going somewhere else.
I was thinking the same thing - the crotch area looks like something a toddler would wear for quick access for a diaper change.
Dancing phalluses? One-eyed rainbow trouser trouts?
I like them!! /trolling
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Very similar.
Ping
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