Thumbs up or thumbs down: London 2012 mascots

By John on
The best and the brightest marketing minds on earth have combined to create mascots for the 2012 Olympic games.  The result is disturbingly creepy and will probably give you nightmares.
Look kids–gender neutral cyclopses!

All I know is that if those things go anywhere near the eventing venue the horses are going to freak the heck out.

“Here horsey horsey horsey”
And yes, of course there is a creepy video.  Warning: do not watch this after taking hallucinogens

Since Eventing Nation is more or less a democracy, let’s take a poll:

 Are London’s cyclopses some of the weirdest Mascots Ever?
Note: I first found the new Olympic mascots and accompanying video at The Carrot, which is my most trusted source for fake FEI news, and I guess now for creepy mascot pictures.  Go eventing.

Categories:

Eventing Nation, Ridiculous Commentary
  • Amanda

    I thought our Atlanta Olympics mascot "Whatizit" was bad... these have gone well beyond the '96 level of weird. And is... is one of them wearing a blue diaper? Full-seat breeches, backwards? bleep-less chaps? what IS that?

  • Katie

    ok, i thought the ones we had for the Vacouver olympics were creeptacular ... now big brother has sent out tiny mini mes to watch all the athletes ... *geeehaaa* shudder!

  • soweto

    One world, One voice, One vision, One spirit, One EYE? Cyclops- kiddin' me? Better question; what do these people that dream this stuff up get PAID? More than any eventer, I'm sure, even a British lottery funded one.

  • Fran

    These Olympics are embarrassing before they've even started *cringe*

  • Lisab

    I like one commenter on another article said the blue one looks like he peed his pants. Awful mascots!

  • Katie

    Really creepy!

  • lec

    I have friend who is involved in the eventing site for London - do not read into the bad publicity! The residents are very political made up of barristers and city bankers and they have been a pain from day one about it. As for the mascots - hideous. I bet it cost over 1 million pounds to design some hideous blobs. What is wrong with a cute little lion?

  • http://rrivarr.wordpress.com Barb

    Looks like someone using hallucinogens dreamed them up- very creepy!

  • Polly

    I'm with the rest of you-these mascots are ghastly!! Jeeze Louise, WHAT were 'they' thinking?? Yeck. Now I can't wait to see what the "uniform" designers come up with. (((((shuddering and shivering)))))

  • Tara

    It's like someone swallowed the teletubbies, then threw up these. Yikes!

  • Laura

    I seriously wonder who up in the glass tower thought up this genius idea...and who the hell supported it?!?! As someone who works in marketing..and around the Olympics, all I can say is WTF. They MUST have been tested in market...right? RIGHT??? Vancouver's mascots were a little weird but at least cute and cuddly and kids loved them...what kid is going to want a white cyclopse with no personality??

  • clb

    I put these into the same category as: clowns, mimes, puppets and my stepfather after a night of heavy boozing at the cottage.
    Simply Creepy.
    Altough I DID LOL and almost spit my coffee out at John's "Here horsey horsey horsey..."

  • debora

    I was laughing so hard...albeit somewhat hysterically...that I just had to give it a thumbs up! How do you sell this kind of idea? and to who???
    Really, this will bring a laugh for hours to come....or until
    the dark of night encroaches...

  • Margie

    They are seriously hideous. Whoever nightmared these up must have been on some BAD acid trip at the time!

  • ctabacco

    OMFG!
    Are you kidding me?
    They remind me of the Teletubbies, another British import. A kids program: http://pbskids.org/teletubbies/teletubbyland.html
    Also remind me of Boobah...http://pbskids.org/boohbah/boohbah.html
    Totally ridiculous!
    Just wait... you will see these guys as standards in stadium or something to be jumped on cross country!

  • andrea

    one word
    creepy

    and is that the logo on the orange one - ummm ohhhkkaayy????

  • andrea

    well my five year old daughter loves them. sigh. She loved the movie too. ugh.
    I am not buying one!!!

  • Fran

    Yeah lec, a lion would be so much better! Much more recognisable as a symbol of the country than these and all.

    Seriously, how embarrassing. The logo is rubbish, the mascots are rubbish. It's like they're trying way too hard to be modern.

  • Anonymous

    THUMBS UP!

    HILARIOUS, who in the world thought of that?? Then named them Wenlock and Mandeville, then came up with a weird story of how they are made of a rainbow???

  • jka

    wow....these things were very creepy, and the little movie? just so strange, can't we just go back to cute cuddly animals? Not strange metallic creatures with one eyeball staring at you....gives me the heebie jeebies...

  • McKenna

    creepy much? did anyoone else notice the m and f on both of them? what are they trying to distinguish genders now?!! *shudder* that is soo creepyy!!! And yea it does kind of look like the blue one peed his pants! And I laughed so hard at the hear horsey horsey horsey hahaha

  • Fran

    Lol, McKenna! I don't think they're trying to distinguish genders- M is for Mandeville and W is for Wenlock :-P Apparently those little letters are supposed to represent black cabs... hahahaha, mascot fail.