Wenlock: Down with the kids
Lord of the Rings Sebastian Coe has revealed the mascots for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic games at a primary school in east London.
Wenlock, the Olympic mascot and Mandeville, for the Paralympics, are said to be fashioned from drops of steel used to make the stadium, though their rather cushioned appearance suggests this may not actually be true.
After an almost universally negative reaction to the logo for the London games, the head of the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (LOCOG) hoped that the mascots would be well received.
As part of the design process children and parents were involved in focus groups. However, initial responses from the press and public alike have suggested those groups may not have been that focussed after all.
The Times gave the mascots 11 out of 10 for ‘ghastliness’, The Guardian said they were ‘a long way from the spirit’ of the original Olympic mascot and, across the Atlantic, The Huffington Post simply asked ‘is it the worst ever?’
Even Canadians, usually so polite, have been sceptical about the designs, with CTV describing them as ‘as one-eyed alien Teletubbies that even 1970s-era Doctor Who fans would find embarrassingly cheesy’.
Despite this negativity LOCOG hope that the mascots will help bring in between 70 to 80 millions pounds in merchandising.
