Olympics Fever: Catch It!

Posted by Scott McClellan on May 20th, 2010 at 8:18 am

Are you looking forward to the 2012 Olympics in London? Are you sure? The reason I ask is that the mascots for the 2012 Games and Paralympics were recently unveiled, and if they’re any indication, the upcoming Olympics will be bizarre and frightening. See for yourself:

That’s Mandeville on the left and Wenlock on the right. Their job is to help prepare us for the 2012 Olympics by haunting our dreams and raising cyclops awareness … or something like that.

From the early reactions I’ve seen on Twitter and in the blogosphere, it appears as though Mandeville and Wenlock don’t have many fans out there. And that’s not surprising to me — they’re odd and creepy. If there’s anything we can learn from this, it’s that expensive, design-by-committee branding can fail spectacularly. And giving the mascots an interactive website, Twitter accounts, and Facebook pages won’t make them engaging and accessible.

Maybe Rio 2016 will do better. Or maybe not.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 20th, 2010 at 8:18 am and is filed under Design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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4 Responses to “Olympics Fever: Catch It!”

[...] “That’s Mandeville on the left and Wenlock on the right. Their job is to help prepare us for the 2012 Olympics by haunting our dreams and raising cyclops awareness … or something like that.” – Collide Magazine Blog [...]

posted at 9:35 am on May 20th, 2010 by Mascot #FAIL | Kicking at the Darkness

what a waste…if i have to see those two idiots everyday for two weeks…i'll stick with world cup soccer

posted at 5:06 pm on May 21st, 2010 by @jim_gray

what
the
freak.

the website is even worse….did anyone watch the cartoon "making of" the mascots? wow.
if only the Redcoats could see their country now.

posted at 2:12 am on May 23rd, 2010 by @worshipVJ

Realistically they aren't any worse than "Izzy" from the Atlanta games. That mascot was tweaked endlessly and still failed.

posted at 12:28 pm on May 23rd, 2010 by Lee Inglewood

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