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Mascot(s) Coming Nov 27, 2007

Kenadian

By Kenadian
in Vancouver 2010 Winter Games

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IceNarcissus Flag Bearer

IceNarcissus

Posted
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On a local news website here in kelowna, http://www.castanet.net they put up a poll asking:

Do you like the new 2010 Olympic mascots ?

The results so far:

Yes: 39

No: 172

Undecided: 20

You should see facebook's hate groups!

I hate Quatchi the 2010 mascot: 22 members

Death to Gay Olympic Mascots: 2 members

Then there's the 2010 Mascots - Love 'em or Hate 'em? group with 4 members.

And the only pro-mascot group, the Vancouver 2010 Mascot Fanclub group has only 2 members.

I think people are turned off because of the use of traditionally asian styles. Oh well. For some people anything coming out of Vancouver will be "too asian" or "too native". You'll never be able to like anything if you're somebody who thinks like that. :blink:

Maybe to please the nay-sayers we should just have Neve and Gliz again! At least they aren't asian or native. :P

And on the test I got Sumi. woot.

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SkiFreak Flag Bearer Level 3

SkiFreak

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I think people are turned off because of the use of traditionally asian styles. Oh well. For some people anything coming out of Vancouver will be "too asian" or "too native". You'll never be able to like anything if you're somebody who thinks like that. :blink:

I would have preferred a more native design style. This isn't asia. The Beijing mascots are geat and reflect China. The 2010 mascots don't represent Vancouver or Whistler. I don't know. Maybe in time they'll grow on me but right now, I don't really like them.

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mr.x Flag Bearer Level 5

mr.x

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I would have preferred a more native design style. This isn't asia. The Beijing mascots are geat and reflect China. The 2010 mascots don't represent Vancouver or Whistler. I don't know. Maybe in time they'll grow on me but right now, I don't really like them.

well, nearly 50% of the population in Vancouver IS Asian.

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SkiFreak Flag Bearer Level 3

SkiFreak

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well, nearly 50% of the population in Vancouver IS Asian.

True in this day and age, but the mascots still don't reflect Vancouver's, Whistler's, or BC's roots. In a way they may, but the design style does not. Even the Global BC newscasters didn't seem too thrilled and that is evident from them parodying the mascots.

They should have gone more of an environmental angle with the mascots and featured rare or endangered wildlife. The marmot is a sidekick? He should have been front and center with a Spirit Bear, Orca, and Eagle. Ok the Orca and Eagle aren't that endangered but at least they are representative of the land, the sea, and the air.

Partnerships could've have been generated with the Greater Vancouver Zoo which is in desperate need of upgrading. The Zoo could have helped out with bringing the message to people about conservation and sustainability through the presentation of the mascots.

I also found this ironic, from http://www.canada.com/globaltv/bc/story.ht...7b3&k=10951

Cobb said much of the merchandise will be made in China, although the contract was awarded to a Burnaby company. He deflected reporters' questions about how Vanoc will ensure the merchandise isn't manufactured in sweatshops, saying the committee has insisted its suppliers meet high standards of ethical conduct.

Bring on the toys covered in lead paint! All this week Global National is running stories on toxic toys coming out of China.

I also found this funny:

The only major glitch in the design process was the discovery that an early name for Quatchi actually had a rude connotation in another language. Cobb wouldn't say what the word was, but insisted Vanoc has carefully vetted all of the creatures' names. He didn't think “Sumi” would be parodied into “Sue Me.”

It's already been parodied on many discussion boards: Sumi = Sue Me.

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mr.x Flag Bearer Level 5

mr.x

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I liked the video . To me honest , Miga is better as a whale. Are the going to sell him as a whale or the spirit bear

from vanoc:

Miga is a young sea bear who lives in the ocean with her family pod, out past Vancouver Island near Tofino, British Columbia. Sea bears are part killer whale and part bear. Miga is part Kermode bear, a rare white bear that only lives in British Columbia.

All summer long, Miga rides waves with local surfers. But during the winter months, she often sneaks onto the shores of Vancouver to seek adventure. When Miga discovered that humans were 'surfing' on snow, up in the mountains, she knew she had to join the fun. Snowboarding soon became her favourite winter sport. Her dream is to land a corked 720 in the half-pipe one day… It will take lots of practice, and a few falls along the way, but she’s sure she can do it.

The sea bear is inspired by the legends of the Pacific Northwest First Nations, tales of orca whales that transform into bears when they arrive on land. The Kermode bear is a rare white or cream-coloured sub-species of the black bear that is unique to the central West Coast of British Columbia. According to First Nations’ legend, Kermode bears — also known as Spirit Bears — were turned white by Raven to remind people of the Ice Age. Orcas are also honoured in the art and stories of West Coast First Nations, as travellers and guardians of the sea.

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Olympian2004 Flag Bearer Level 6

Olympian2004

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from vanoc:

Miga is a young sea bear who lives in the ocean with her family pod, out past Vancouver Island near Tofino, British Columbia. Sea bears are part killer whale and part bear. Miga is part Kermode bear, a rare white bear that only lives in British Columbia.

(...) The sea bear is inspired by the legends of the Pacific Northwest First Nations, tales of orca whales that transform into bears when they arrive on land.

I see. First I was pretty irritated by the name "sea bear" because in German, "sea bear" (as we say, "Seebär") is how we call the northern fur seal (see here). And I didn't recognise a fur seal at all in Miga.

Anyway, this is how I rate the mascots: Thumbs up, Vancouver! I like them although I agree that they have a pretty Asian (especially Beijing 2008) touch. Nevertheless, they are cute and especially Quatchi suits the logo's clumsy Ilanaaq a lot. And now I know why they had Ben Heppner sing the national anthem at the handover ceremony -- it was a new way of presenting the mascots already at the preceding closing ceremony:

BenOlympics06b.jpg

Heppner

ecard_q_thumb.jpg

Quatchi

:lol:

I also think that the design of the mascots suits the look of the Games very well. But I don't think that they resemble the South Park characters. Looking at the promotional video, they remind me rather (but only slightly, though) of the Happy Tree Friends.

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mr.x Flag Bearer Level 5

mr.x

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Even the Global BC newscasters didn't seem too thrilled and that is evident from them parodying the mascots.

Global??? i try not to watch their news regularly....people who have worked but left there since the Asper family bought the station and amalgamated it with Canwest say that they are told by "the people upstairs" to sensationalize everything.

take a look at the inukshuk logo for example. Canwest owns the two newspapers in the city plus the dominant news station, thus 80% of the local media market....they were streaming a lot of negativity on the logo.

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