think of the children...
Not only are they one-eyed snakes, but they're wearing "shag-bands" too, what a bad influence!
The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (Locog) had better run for cover and batten down the hatches - if intial reaction to its official 2012 mascots is anything to go by. The 2012 Olympics logo Following the Lisa Simpson blowjob logo debacle, and subsequent epilepsy-inducing animated footage scandal, Locog was …
I'm still amazed (shouldn't be really), just how much pointless cash they've already spunked up against the wall for these olympics. All in the name of the greased-palms and committees of course.
The millions wasted on the logo when they could have just used this one instead: http://blog.case.edu/james.chang/2007/06/07/favorite_2012_logo.jpg is just staggering (IMHO it's definitely the best alternative produced)
And now some naff rendered characters that appear to have no charm or personality at all? I hope they transfer better when animated because at the moment all I see is 1980s quality raytraced images... all they need is a black and white checked tile floor and the look will be complete.
Criticising these for "infantilism" when their stated aim was:
""We've created our mascots for children. They will connect young people with sport, and tell the story of our proud Olympic and Paralympic history.""
Is a bit fucking rich (but, well, the Telegraph ARE aren't they?).
Here, have a pineapple, you miserable git.
That art ceases to become art the minute it is commissioned by councils/government, because it has to be modified to fit in with whatever agenda it is supposed to be supporting.
I'm starting to see where he's coming from.
Burning a million quid would probably be cheaper too.
"They're for kids; you just don't get it", will, I'm sure, be the standard retort to the detractors, however proof of the pudding will be in whether they make millions of quid in sales and licensing revenue.
They're not getting any of my money.
As to the, "British obsession with deriding itself ad infinitum" ... If only that were an Olympic sport we'd be guaranteed a gold, silver and bronze straight flush. We're well practised in it, and have good reason to be.
Meh. Design by committee usually results in camels. These things are always mediocre at best and the new characters are no exception. "Mandeville" is also far too close to "Mandelson" for it not go get picked-up by comedians.
I don't personally understand why *any* money is being spent on watching a bunch of lunatics keeping fit. Nobody pays to watch _me_ work out at my local gym. Being able to sprint 400 metres really quickly may have been useful back when we were still fighting wars with flint axes, but it's of debatable value today.
It would be far better if we had an Olympics event better suited to the modern world.
Yes, the British would win gold, silver and bronze if there were a 400m. Whinge event. But the Americans, who would romp home with all three medals at both the Ridiculous Spontaneous Applause and the Patronising Marathon.
The Italians will, naturally, beat the crap out of every other country in the €50K Political Bribe, and also do very well at the Bullshit Regional Dish. (The British win—naturally—with yer actual cheddar on toast, with a dash of mustard; Italy, silver., with their "Quattro Formaggio pizza". The Welsh take the bronze with their Welsh Rarebit. The Welsh would be penalised for not using the word "cheese" in their dish's name.)
Other events could include: 3km. Striker's March (Fav: FR); Downhill Fiscal Policy (Fav: every country in the developed world); Synchronised Fibbing (Favs: most of GB's political class; Italy's Silvio Berlusconi) and Darwinian Skydiving, where participants are awarded for diving style and splatter.
Now *that* would be worth paying for.
The only people who like these claim kids like them. Well I have just surveyed my three children (8, 6 and 3) and they thought these were terrible (3 yr old found them a bit scary).
I carried out the survey at the school the elder two go to and more than three quarters of the kids asked laughed and said they thought this was rubbish.
Ok - unscientific survey completed, I am happy that my understanding of childrens tastes is not totally b0rked.
These are terrible. It is shocking that LOCOG have spent money on this. The whole olympics issue is a cash draining farce for a bit of pointless national pride. If there was any God, then Lord Coe would be in prison on fraud charges. I actually think most children could have done a better job of organising the games than he did, let alone drawing the mascot.
It is ironic that we as a nation appear to be sending out the signal that its OK for childrens toys to look like a cross between a giant dildo and a CCTV camera.......
"If there was any God, then Lord Coe would be in prison on fraud charges"
One of our most committed guys who's mission in life was to run and run and just keep on running and never stop until the rest of us put him on a pedestal and cheered him as our hero for doing it better than everybody else in the world! After or failing which he'd stand as a Tory MP having had the opportunity to figure the world out in his own head while the rest of the world passed him by on it's different trajectory. The twat.
Bayley fulminates: "Why do we have to endure this sort of cretinous infantilism, and this awful lowbrow pandering to primitive ideas of fun?"
Get over yourself, I don't see how trying something a little different is such a bad thing...ok, you don't like it...at least they had the balls to do something a little differently rather than stay stuck in the old "British" ways. Personally, I don't love them and I don't hate them, but I would applaud the designers for designing something that causes a little controversy...
as for this quote "If London 2012 is going to be remembered for its art, then we can declare it a calamitous failure already."...How many artists are there that appeal to every single person? This guy doesn't like it and has therefore declared it a failure...I'll say it again, Get over yourself!
"I can't see why people seem to work themselves up into such a rage of something so pointless. Does anyone actually remember any of the mascots from previous Olympics or World cups? So what the hell does it matter?"
No of course not, they have all been instantly forgettable due to being:
- Ephemeral marketing/merchandising fluff
- Born out of inscrutable cultural idiom
- Crap
These latest examples meet all three criteria and are thus: HUGE SUCCESS
Someone *actually* sat down and thought that these would be a good idea?
This *has* to be some sort of secret strategy for winning the Olympics. We screen these things at the end of the track, along with our proud blowjob logo and the other competitors will be too busy pissing themselves laughing to run.
The London Olympic Commitee - A bunch of mindless jerks who will be first against the wall when the revolution comes.
Here are some helpful tips for designing an Olympic mascot from scratch:
It should look athletic, so that it may be plausibly animated participating in various sporting activities. Just because CGI makes it possible to animate a ton of bricks or a gelatinous blob doing a high jump does not make it appropriate to do so.
It should relate to the host country, eg through history, folklore, national dress, physical characteristics
It should relate to the rest of the art & design that is being done for the Olympics, such as the logo, architecture etc
Alternatively, rather than starting from scratch, you might ask what A-list animated characters may be signed up for the Olympics who are distinctive to the host country, adaptable to the task, and recognised the world over? Few host countries are even able to answer that, but Britain certainly can; with Wallace & Gromit probably being the most promising contenders.
Surely they'd be better than a couple of contrived unnatural blobs that have clearly been designed deliberately to be raceless & genderless, and accidentally to not look cabable of any athletic endevour or have any coherence at all with the logo.
If you are planning on making big bucks selling them, shouldn't you design a mascot that can actually be made out of plush? These look like they could only be fashioned out of mylar; I'm not sure many people will want an Olympic Mascot balloon -- they're a little hard to pack.
Also, wouldn't they make more money if they had more mascots, like the winter games: http://www.boingboing.net/2010/02/06/pedolympics.jpg ? Now those I would actually buy for my kids!
I'm not gonna bash the mascots even though they remind me of melted down toy cars but...
What's inspiring about these? They just remind me of the giant grey shopping complex recently put up in my town, a blight to a town of countryside and tradition.
I'll go for Tux. To represent how spaced out British people must be to find blobs inspiring with the eyes, skin head and big mouth