Bolt from the blue: the Olympic mascot Wenlock, left, and the Paralympic mascot Mandeville strike an
Usain Bolt pose
Posted on 05/19/2010 9:21:26 PM PDT by bruinbirdman
The two metallic characters, named Wenlock and Mandeville, were unveiled on Wednesday night after a rigorous 18-month design process involving 40 focus groups.
Apparently hewn from the “last drops of steel” left over from constructing the final support girder of the Olympic Stadium, the one-eyed creatures are intended to help young people relate to the Games.
Bolt from the blue: the Olympic mascot Wenlock, left, and the Paralympic mascot Mandeville strike an
Usain Bolt pose
But branding experts last night called them “a calamity” and accused Olympic bosses of wasting thousands of pounds on their creation.
Stephen Bayley, the prominent design critic, said: “What is it about these Games which seems to drive the organisers into the embrace of this kind of patronising, cretinous infantilism? Why can’t we have something that makes us sing with pride, instead of these appalling computerised Smurfs for the iPhone generation?
“If the Games are going to be remembered by their art then we can declare them a calamitous failure already.”
Lord Coe, chairman of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic games, defended the mascots, saying they would inspire young people to engage with sport.
“We’ve created our mascots for children. By linking young people to the values of sport, Wenlock and Mandeville will help inspire kids to strive to be the best they can be,” he said.
But critics said the design would leave young people baffled. Aaron Shields, a partner at the design agency BrandInstict, said: “I don’t think people are going to relate to these very modern creations. The first rule of mascot creation is to make something familiar and accessible, not something alien. This is just going to be seen as another disappointment coming out of the Olympic games.”
The two characters are
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
It looks broken—perhaps it’s an appropriate logo after all.
A single mentally challenged first grader could have done better.
LOL...they look like tapeworms...
They’re kinda creepy.
A friendly, happy and cheerful creepy, but creepy nevertheless.
Or somebody on LSD with an 8-color Crayon box, not even the deluxe 64, which we all love so much...
I told my friends I thought the mascots were Teletubbies who mutated and escaped from a toxic waste dump after 15 years.
2 phalus shaped mascots, each with 1 eye... with a rainbow background.
Am I the only one out here who thinks it’s wierd?
side note: I’m a little surprised 1 isn’t brown.
Or those flatworms we cut up in high school biology...paramecia?
Teenage Mutant Teletubbies?
They'll probably make kids burst out in tears . . .
If I were a cyclops, I would feel very at home with these mascots...
Actually, they look like the dreams one gets after too much pizza.
Daleks would have been a better choice.
The City of Atlanta is now off the hook for the worst Olympic mascot.
Thanks, cousins!
“But, Dad, they’re not really bad, they’re just...stupid.”
That is an excellent moniker.
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