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.