Mascot(s) Coming Nov 27, 2007

[SkiFreak]

One more week until we find out what the mascot is. Hopefully it isn't fugley. Actually, I like the sea otter idea mr. x.

[Durban Sandshark]

Just in time for the holiday shopping season...

[SkiFreak]

Anybody catch the Global BC news this evening and see the story on the orphaned Kermode Bear, a.k.a. Spirit Bear that was rescued near Smithers? Cute little bear cub. He's being looked after in Terrace and they hope to release him back in the wild after some rehab next year. The reporter hinted that the Spirit Bear may be the mascot for the 2010 games.

[IceNarcissus]

well they did say there was more than one. correct?

maybe a spirit bear and the otters. hoo-hoo! what a time!

[baron-pierreIV]

How 'bout a spirit ottear?

[NYCD 2012]

I just hope those new mascots toy aren't china made who knows whats inside em ? Old Chinese newspapers ?

[olympics08]

Anybody catch the Global BC news this evening and see the story on the orphaned Kermode Bear, a.k.a. Spirit Bear that was rescued near Smithers? Cute little bear cub. He's being looked after in Terrace and they hope to release him back in the wild after some rehab next year. The reporter hinted that the Spirit Bear may be the mascot for the 2010 games.

I heard that! I saw the online webcast of their "News Hour". Linda Aylesworth said at the start of her report about that:

"It may be BC's official mammal, but it might also be our 2010 Olympic mascot."

Unbelivable! Beat that!

Cute bear, too!

[Kenadian]

Yeah, but it is all speculation right now. There has been a lot of talk about the Kermode/Spirit Bear as mascot...but none of it from VANOC. Just hold on until Tuesday.

[Olympian2004]

I'm hoping for the hands-holding sea otters. It can't get cuter than that. And it also would be a nice reference to internet culture.

[rav3n]

Spirit Bear or Otter could work perfectly, altought in my personal opinion there are more posibilites for the otter, since the bear is a mascot already used in three olympics (Misha, Hidy and Howdy and Coal).

[Olympian2004]

Spirit Bear or Otter could work perfectly, altought in my personal opinion there are more posibilites for the otter, since the bear is a mascot already used in three olympics (Misha, Hidy and Howdy and Coal).

That's right. And the otter has been used only once, for the Salt Lake 2002 Winter Paralympics:

Otto the Otter

[mr.x]

Hyper-hush surrounds 2010 Games mascots 'til Tuesday

Jeff Lee, Vancouver Sun

Published: Saturday, November 24, 2007

On Tuesday, the biggest Olympic secret since Vanoc's unveiling of its Inukshuk logo two years ago will be revealed when the mascots for the 2010 Winter Olympics and Paralympics are made public.

The drama has been building. Websites and blogs have been speculating on what inevitably cuddly, cute creatures the Vancouver Organizing Committee has come up with.

What's at stake is an indelible image Vanoc wants recognized around the world, representative of British Columbia and Canada. They want mascots that will tie children and youth into the Olympic movement and to the Winter Games.

They also expect the mascots to drive their marketing and licence revenues.

On Wednesday morning licensees will stock stores with every manner of mascot-branded toy, clothing and trinket.

There has already been a frenzy among memorabilia collectors who have tried to get tickets to the unveiling at the Bell Performing Arts Centre in Surrey. Some have gone so far as to ask reporters if they can work as their assistants.

In response, hyper-secrecy has been the order of the day; Vanoc has kept details off Internet-enabled computers and hidden them from search engines that scour patent and trademark databases around the world.

Vanoc has kept most of its staff in the dark. Only slightly more than a dozen employees and executives, the design team and a few close-mouthed sponsors who needed to develop pin designs know the details. Even people working with the design team who don't need access to the images haven't been shown them.

Vanoc is even reluctant to take reporters' calls about the design and process. The launch, as Dave Cobb, Vanoc's executive vice-president of marketing and communications, says, is one of the signature events in the run-up to the Games, and the principle of "loose lips sink ships" has been practised to high art form.

In one unintended hint, Vanoc CEO John Furlong once referred to the mascots in a speech as "critters." We also know that the winning submission came from a pair of graphic designers, location unknown, whose bid was among 178 submissions professional designers made to Vanoc last September.

So, with all that in mind, what else is known about the mascots?

Well, there are at least two -- one for the Olympics and one for the Paralympics. There might possibly be more, but Vanoc won't say if it is following in the steps of other Games committees that have chosen multiple mascots.

They will also have two legs. They have to, in order for humans to operate them. Even if they are, speculatively speaking, four-legged sea otters or Vancouver Island marmots, two-finned beluga whales or a first nations-inspired thunderbird with wings.

Will they be uniquely identifiable as British Columbian? After all, even Premier Gordon Campbell has weighed in, suggesting the white kermode bear of B.C.'s central coast would be appropriate.

Vanoc is keeping mum. But Ali Gardiner, Vanoc's director of brand and creative services, does say the winning designs are ones that Canadians will adopt as their own and yet have regional characteristics that people in any province can accept.

"A good mascot can help reveal a side of your country and tell a story of the Games that will really appeal to children, and also to adults and youth."

Most importantly they will have character. Vanoc has spent a lot of time developing the back story for each mascot, testing them with groups of children around North America. It was fairly easy to find what Gardiner called "the magic factor."

"There were a lot of concepts that were popular, but there were a few we could tell really just captured peoples' imaginations," she said. "You would hear them talking about them as if they were a family member or friend."

Vanoc winnowed through more than 20 concepts. The names and images were also screened for unintended meanings in all the world's languages and cultures.

It's a task Fraser Bullock, the former CEO of the 2002 Salt Lake Games, says is critical if the committee wants to avoid a cultural disaster.

"You have to run all the traps so that you don't offend a culture or a country with a name you didn't realize had a different meaning," he said.

Bullock, who is also a member of the International Olympic Committee's Vancouver Coordination Commission, said he hasn't seen Vanoc's designs.

Mascots are supposed to be something that "ties to the culture, to the land, something about your community, province or state," said Bullock. For example, Salt Lake created three mascots, Powder (a hare), Copper (coyote), and Coal (a bear) that represented the Olympic motto of Citius, Altius, Fortius, or Faster, Higher, Stronger, as well as snow and the two primary resources of Utah.

"What we were trying to accomplish was to create greater affiliation with the Games, and at the same time tie it to our local identity," he said. Vanoc is not giving any hints about the form or type, other than to say that they won't be fantastic creations of the mind that have no connection to animals, minerals or elements.

In the history of the Olympics and Paralympics, only the 1996 Atlanta Summer Games ventured into the realm of the fantastic, creating a mascot out of nothing, an amorphous blue blob that even its creators had trouble defining. They even settled on a name, "Whatizit," which became shortened to "Izzy," while wags wanted to call it "Whoneedzit" and "Getridofit."

Gardiner smiled ruefully when asked if she's prepared for the inevitable satirization of the mascots. Satire will only get people talking about the mascots, and that's not a bad idea, she said.

"Oh, we kind of expect that to happen. We try to not make that too easy," she said. "But I don't expect it will be more than five minutes before something is on the Internet."

jefflee@png.canwest.com

OLYMPIC MASCOTS -- FRIENDLY, POPULAR, OR NOT

Ask a dozen people which Olympic mascots they like, and risk getting a dozen different answers. But there are some images that have gone down in history as either the most favoured, or the most disliked.

- The 1992 Barcelona Summer Games may not rank as the most memorable, but it seems its mascot, Cobi the dog, is.

Cobi is repeatedly cited by designers, organizing committees and creative directors as hitting the "sweet spot" with people. With its Picassoesque face and cheeky attitude, it became such a beloved character that on the 10th anniversary of the Games it was still revered as an idol, according to Ali Gardiner, Vanoc's director of brand and creative services.

- At the other end of the spectrum is Izzy, the blue mythic creature picked by the 1996 Atlanta Summer Games organizers. Although it sold well in stores, it didn't garner much respect. Even Simpsons creator Matt Groening described Izzy to Sports Illustrated as a "bad marriage of the Pillsbury Doughboy and the ugliest California Raisin."

- The first official Olympic mascot was Waldi the dachshund of the 1972 Munich Summer Games. But the first unofficial one was "Schuss," a man on skis, which debuted at the 1968 Grenoble Winter Games.

- Canada weighed in with the second official mascot, Amik the beaver, in 1976 in Montreal. Twelve years later, Calgary broke new ground with the introduction of Hidy and Howdy, a pair of polar bears, the first multiple mascots, and gender-specific at that.

- The 2008 Beijing Games have moved to a new level with the creation of five Olympic ring-coloured mascots. Called the Friendlies, they represent four animals (fish, panda bear, Tibetan antelope, swallow) and the Olympic flame.

- In 2006, Turin, Italy, was the first Olympic Games to use mascots that weren't animals or human beings. Neve was a snowball and Gliz an ice cube. Their Paralympic partner was Aster, the one-legged snowflake.

In the history of mascots, parody is a matter of fact. Turin's mascots were turned into political and risque objects by artists around the world. And Australians poked fun of their three Sydney 2000 mascots, Olly, Syd and Millie (a kookaburra, platypus and echidna) with the creation of Fatso the Fat-Arsed Wombat, an unofficial mascot that quickly became more popular.

© The Vancouver Sun 2007

[IceNarcissus]

LOL@"critters" being a "big hint".

Are there really any living animals in BC that CAN'T be described as critters?

[SkiFreak]

Maybe the mascot will be a taser with a smiley face.

[Faster]

I am guessing another triplet of mascots.

Edited November 25, 2007 by Faster

[Kenadian]

"The 1992 Barcelona Summer Games may not rank as the most memorable, but it seems its mascot, Cobi the dog, is."

WTF??? Most people regard Barcelona has having hosted one of the most incredible Olympics EVER! It was perhaps the most wildly successful Olympics at creating a tourist destination. This just proves the point that you can only take what journalists write with a grain of salt. Just because it is written in a newspaper or a blog doesn't make it true.

[IceNarcissus]

I think it being such a good event was a reason why it wasn't so memorable. We tend to remember history by things that are problematic, not smooth sailing. I remember a lot more of Atlanta and Athens than I do Barcelona or Sydney because of all the problems.

[NYCD 2012]

"The 1992 Barcelona Summer Games may not rank as the most memorable, but it seems its mascot, Cobi the dog, is."

WTF??? Most people regard Barcelona has having hosted one of the most incredible Olympics EVER! It was perhaps the most wildly successful Olympics at creating a tourist destination. This just proves the point that you can only take what journalists write with a grain of salt. Just because it is written in a newspaper or a blog doesn't make it true.

Well their torch lighting was memorable. The thing is, The arrow actually when out of the stadium but the flame lit when the arrow was above. Organisers didn't want to risk the flaming arrow to fall on the spectators so they shot it outside.

[mr.x]

Today's the day!

They will be unveiled at 10:30 AM PST, and it will likely be live on CTV Newsnet, CBC Newsworld, and possibly Sportsnet and TSN.

This is going to be a busy day for VANOC, as later that day they will also be unveiling their plans for the Cultural Olympiad.

No laughing matter

By BOB MACKIN, 24 HOURS

Will it be the raven, the creator and trickster according to aboriginal legends? Could it be the hoary marmot, the rodent that put the whistle in Whistler? Should it be the spirit bear, the province's official mammal?

We will find out this morning if Vancouver 2010 chose all, some or none of the above as mascots of the 2010 Winter Olympics and Paralympics.

Whichever critters VANOC unveils before schoolchildren and the media at the Bell Performing Arts Centre in Surrey, they will symbolize not only the 2010 Games but Vancouver to the world. VANOC is banking on mascot pins, hats, T-shirts and dolls to help it fetch $46 million in souvenir sales.

The search for designers and designs began last fall. VANOC has worked covertly to avoid the embarrassing leak that pre-empted the April 2005 launch of the controversial Ilanaaq the inukshuk logo.

"We do take some precautions and are careful," said VANOC executive vice-president of revenue, marketing and communication Dave Cobb. "Our focus isn't so much on keeping it secret as it is making sure we have a good show, good launch event and people see who the mascots are."

Grenoble 1968's skier Schuss and Munich 1972's Waldi the dachshund were the Olympics' first mascots. Montreal 1976 followed with Amik the beaver. Moscow 1980's Misha the bear was the first life-sized, walking mascot. Lake Placid 1980's real raccoon Rocky died and was replaced with the fake Roni. The Disney-designed Sam the Eagle was a symbol of the Olympics' new era at Los Angeles 1984.

"The pattern of commercialization of the mascots parallels that of the Olympics and this really took place in the post-1976 era," said Prof. Kevin Wamsley of the University of Western Ontario's International Centre for Olympic Studies.

Whatever Vancouver's mascots are, they must be simple to succeed, said Ted Giannoulas, the San Diego Chicken. He called Atlanta 1996's blue fantasy figure Izzy one of the "great faux pas" in mascot history.

"Don't put a mean face, maybe have an edge to it, but nothing grinning its teeth," Giannoulas said. "Leave the game face to the players."

The new critters on the block will automatically take top spot on the podium of Vancouver mascots until their scheduled spring 2010 retirement. They'll join the Canucks' Fin the orca, fraternal twin of the Whitecaps' "aquabird" Winger and cousin of Klee Wyck, the 1994 Victoria Commonwealth Games' whale. Unlike Fin and Winger, Leo the Lion and Jack the Giant are docile. All four of them combined couldn't match the energy of long-gone Super Grizz. The Vancouver Grizzlies' flying, slam-dunking mascot was like a bear on steroids. Van Raven, of pro lacrosse's dormant Vancouver Ravens, was equally pumped. Robot Expo Ernie briefly emerged from storage last year for the 20th anniversary of Expo 86. But there's a reason why most mascots are animals, not things.

"It's something you can animate easily," said Simon Fraser University marketing professor Lindsay Meredith. "It's something that you can make effective advertising, it's something that will catch kids' eyes as well as adults."

[NOC]

Anywhere live online we can watch it from Australia?

[Faster]

Anywhere live online we can watch it from Australia?

You already know its gonna suck, so why bother?

[NYCD 2012]

According to my cellphone's World Clock , its 0914 in Vancouver. 1hour 46minutes to go !

[rav3n]

Huh? Maybe i would check the Time Zone diferences (here is 13:32). Let's see what they gotta show, hope it's not another flop.

[Kenadian]

Somehow, I think it is doubtful that the new "critter" will be an existing animal restyled into a plush toy. I get the feeling that it will be something kind of new. Almost everything has been done before and I think everyone is expecting a bear or some other fuzzy animal. But like the expectation that the logo would be another maple leaf or snowflake, the VANOC people seem to prefer to take a U-turn and do something different. We'll see in an hour.

[Tanaka_Ray]

It's the TIME !!!!! guys I can't get it live in Indonesia, plz give me info ASAP... thank you