The unveiling with children

I thought it was rather odd that they unveiled the things with a bunch of little kids in the front row seats. The kids thought the little things were cute and then they interviewed some folks on the street. They might have wanted to edit that part. Is it any wonder that people are worried about how much all this is going to cost with these people in charge.

Yep! Right on James

Screw on some slightly bigger anime eyes and whaddaya got?

Ridiculous - They'd have been better to stick with a Peter Boyle/Frankenstein's monster Inuckshuk crashing and thumping and gallumping across the stage.

Is this the work of multicultural icon and Olympic advisor Bruce Allen?

At one point I thought Furlong had some beans - now he's just a has been.

P*** poor Japanese Animee

My God, is the best Vanoc can do, third rate cartoon characters based on third rate Japanese Animee. It is all invention, computer generated crap to sell to the 'believers'. Well my 5 year old thinks they don't have a stitch to his Spider Pig. Well it is a pig, which he calls spider pig after the Simpson's movie trailer. ~ spider pig, Spider pig .......

And they bused kids from all over the lower mainland for this press offering; really Mr. Campbell should these kids not be taken from school to be used in a cheap political event.

This reminds me of a story; I was invited to the opening of the 'round house' in Vancouver, back in the socred days. This was my first political event and I was amazed that there were at least 100 people in the stands, flashing flash cubes to give the effect that hundred were taking pictures of Gracie and the rest. It was all pure hucksterism, just like the event today.

It is all very pathetic.

Hilarious

Just saw the mascots for the first time on the news and almost fell off my chair laughing. They discussed the fact that most critics were adults but that the "marketing" target group was children. Evidently Vanoc doesnt care what people (who are paying for this circus) think as long as their kids can bug them into buying a "cute" toy to keep those bucks rolling in. The funniest part is that most parents will cave and do it.

Money, money, money. Oh, yeah, I guess there's something about sports too.

Tsk,Tsk,To Mickey Mouse

What a bloody farce. From the start the talking heads couldn't even pronounce Inukshuk properly. There is no CH sound in the name. Every time I hear InookCHUCK, I break up.
But no matter.
I've personally boycotted every bi-annual TV extravaganza since the Ice-dancing judges scandal at Calgary.(and their advertisers products)
This will be the nineth time I'll keep what money I have left deep in my near empty pockets.

Why didn't they

Why didn't Vanoc just pay to use the Pokemon license and import a few characters like Pikachu - that's all they have now and I wager it would have been a lot cheaper?

Let's see now......

........third rate Japanese Animee plush dolls, oh yes very correct third rate Japanese Animee plush dolls, complete with biographies.

The world must think we are nuts, no not nuts.... insane!

These figures are crap, just like the same mass produced crap toys sold a Toys-r-us or given away at the fast food joints. I hope that they are safe for kids.

Boycott the Olympics, boycott these plush toys and Boycott all who sell these things!

What was wrong with the pile of rocks? Oh yes, not cuddly enough and certainly doesn't represent BC. Well, folks the present lot of three toys don't represent BC either!

public brouhaha

check out the responses on CBC's news website:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/yourview/bc/2007/11/do_you_like_the_2010_olympic_m.html

Safe for kids?

The plush toys were made in China. After they're recalled, perhaps we can have a new design.

birtis gordumbia

I was hoping for a " Tony the Taser" character. Hey!!! Be Good!

mascots

Someone has conned VANOC. These "mascots"
bear no resemblance to BC history, wildlife, environment or culture. They resemble silly games played on computers and are possibly a copyright infringement.
The idea that they will now be taken through schools across the province is an affront to sanity. Would we allow McDonald's such access to gullible little kids? Shame.

Who Cares?

Some of the responses on here are over-dramatic to the point of laughable. What I don't get is why people get in such a huff over it?? At the end of the day who is really going to remember the mascots and logo of the 2010 Games? Do any of you remember Lillehammer’s or Torino’s? All people are going to care about when it's all said and done is that we hosted a great games, Canada kicked ass in the medal count and that it made money. If VANOC has done their market research well and these mascots ultimately contribute to generating more marketing revenue who the hell cares about what they represent? Give your heads a shake and move onto more important things. This will all blow over in a few days anyway.

why the fuss

Because it's our tax money (and the corporate dollars being spent on the Overrunlympics are unlikely to be skimmed out of profits but rather passed on to the consumer in the form of higher costs) being used to design and market crap we didn't want or need when there's a lot of other things that would have made a much better investment in the future of our province and our children.

You'd rather them take more tax dollars?

Quote: "because if this over-hyped con game doesn't make money, it will be those good people who pay the bills."

And you just made my point. If these little mascots help to generate the $500M they're projected to (and I just heard that HBC is selling out of their inventory of plushies at a blistering pace on only the first day) that's $500M less than they need from tax payers. It's called running a business. Look it up. The Montreal games were a marketing failure, and they didn't take advantage of corporate sponsorship to even the nearest degree that modern Olympics have done and thus relied mostly on public money. People who continually use the ’76 games as a point of argument are clearly showing their lack of knowledge and history. It’s an apples to oranges comparison.

And to the last poster: you clearly don’t have the basic understanding of business practices. These corporations have marketing budgets, and they deemed that sponsoring the Olympics was a good ROI (that point of course can be argued). Sorry to be harsh - but to say the cost of sponsorship is passed onto the consumer and that it should have been used to “better our province” is ridiculous. If the marketing budget wasn’t spent on Olympic sponsorship it would have been spent on another marketing initiative. What do you think they’d just hand it over to the public instead? Again – because VANOC has risen so much capital from said corporations it means less of a dependence on the public coffers. So bring on the mascots and the corporations. Anything they can do to make money and pay for the games. Isn’t that what you want? The short sightedness of some people in this city is mind boggling.

they're cute

I don't support the Olympics but (that aside) there is nothing wrong with this choice of mascots. They're cute.

Olympic Market

The Olympics will be held in Vancouver; the promotion will be in the Far East.

The Olympics are about consumerism. The new markets are in China and all the territories that China claims.

Biscotti - CBC link - thanks

I scanned the CBC link and discovered that a large group of people complained that the mascots are too representative of First Nations. Even people claiming to be FN voiced harsh criticism.

In Sydney Australia, Aboriginals accused their Olympic committee of using native people as window dressing, and of using native heritage to promote the Games in 2000, but not give enough back.

Aboriginals launched an international campaign that brought Sydney's Olympic committee to its knees and almost stopped the Games cold fearing widespread riots.

In early 2006 I published the following in the first edition of my book, Leverage Olympic Momentum;

"On the ramp up to the Games many Australians expected huge riots as disenfranchised Australians used the international media exposure for social gain. It escalated to the point where people were concerned about terrorism, bombs, and shootings. It became so unsettled Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, and “The Hurricane” Ruben Carter intervened to try and calm the Aboriginal community. As a gesture of recognition, over 250,000 white Australians walked across the Sydney Harbour Bridge to say sorry to Aboriginal groups waiting on the other side. It sent a strong message to the prime minister who still refused to apologize. Thousands of white people carried placards around the Games with "sorry" written on them while others said sorry to Aboriginals they didn't know as they passed them on the streets. (hjl50)" end of excerpt

I also covered this issue in my blog because I predicted then that we would suffer the same challenges, and hoped that Canadians could manage our situation in a similar fashion.

I do not believe what I see promoted by local mainstream regarding their effort to convince us things are fine between FN and BC/Canada. Granted, they do publish stories indicating that not all FNs are 2010 happy, but for the most part it is an exercise in necessary illusion and still way too skewed to be accurate or ethical.

Based on these recent mascot responses, it is clear that average Canadians are figuring out that VANOC is going too far out of their way and offering beads instead of substantial changes.

Australian Aboriginals figured it out quickly, and I will be very surprised if FN in Canada do not also eventually do the same. VANOC, our government and news media are not fooling me, and this mascot issue is the first strong indication I've seen that a critical mass of Canadians are catching on to the charade too.

Don't be surprised to see the First Nations billboards soon to be erected adjacent to our bridges festooned with political messages re 2010. Facebook will escalate the protest and the billboards will seal the deal for naive Olympics athletes and spectators driving between Vancouver and Whistler.

No Vikram it's not what I want

I'm not the least interested in helping corporations - especially public ones like ICBC who shouldn't even be involved in this (it's not part of their public mandate) - with their marketing programs.

I'm sick and tired of people playing silly business games at the public trough.

You may think that people like Jack Poole and the rest of Campbell's crew of road builders and real estate developers are in this to help it succeed for the public good.

I'm just as convinced they're not and the fact an American owned corporation like HBC is having a couple of big days selling this crap to gullible parents with children a few days before Christmas proves absolutely nothing.

I think everyone should boycott these products AND refuse to volunteer to help these characters pull the wool over our eyes with another lame mega project boondoggle.

How old are you anyway?

I only used Montreal as a Canadian example - there are plenty of other abysmal failures of the genre - if you care to check it out.

I know what business is all about - and that's why I don't trust a single thing they say.

Let's see, they pulled 800

Let's see, they pulled 800 kids out of class, bused them in, presumably along with their teachers...for what news reports have described as a "tightly controlled media event." Were parents clearly informed their children were being used as props in a product launch? Were teachers given the opportunity to assess whether this was an educationally sound reason to pack up and go on a field trip? Who decided which kids were going?

If marketing to children wasn't morally objectionable enough, using a captive audience of kids and their taxpayer-funded teachers to provide an audience for this spectacle is appalling. We need reassurances that our school children will not be exploited, and miss valuable class time in their underfunded schools, to help promote Olympic merchandise.

Vikram - mascots lure children

You're right that it's unfair to use 1976 as a reference, but you also base your projections on business practices in "normal" markets.

Unfortunately, many people make the same mistake because Olympics organization go to great expense to make it seem like they operate in a manner that is good for the local host community, when in fact, at the last 3 Games, the exact opposite is true.

I agree with you in some respects, and your ideas make sense if we were talking about standard marketing, but the Olympics is a completely different animal, especially when you consider that VANOC is partnered with three levels of government, a wide range of national sponsors like RBC, HBC and Rona, and also with international sponsors like Visa and Coca Cola.

All sponsors make incredible profit on the back of the host community. If they didn't, they wouldn't be involved because their shareholders wouldn't let them. That's how this market works. This very special dynamic brings a level of complexity to the fore that is not duplicated in any other market.

Here's another surprising twist; The Vancouver Sun recently signed an agreement with the IOC to become an official Olympics booster. Considering that they are paid to boost the Olympics, can you really trust what they, or their sister companies (Global News & The Courier) publish or broadcast?

How do you know you're getting accurate information unless you do independent research? Did you know that the IOC demands that sponsors sign agreements stating that they must protect the reputation of the Olympics, and this means EVEN IF IT IS TO THE DETRIMENT OF THE HOST COMMUNITY? It's the law Vikram.

Salt Lake City reported a deficit of $1.2 billion, Athens $12 billion, and Turin is still counting almost two years later. While these regions flat-lined, NBC, the Olympics broadcaster boasted they sold advertising to at least 3 billion worldwide at each of these events.

When you take this into account it is hard to justify that collecting what amounts to mere pennies from a mascot merch deal will make up for the huge deficits on the back end.

Mascots were never designed to generate substantial revenue.

The campaign was developed to give Olympics organizations access to impressionable children in order to cultivate NEW Olympics supporters.

Mascots are bait to lure children into becoming Olympics fans.

Is this ethical?

You romanticize the Games and think of them the way you did when you were a kid. Things change. The Olympics are no longer sports centric. They are profit driven, and host communities are not included in the economic windfall that sponsors so jealously guard and promote. It's now a monopoly and oligopoly rolled into one modern day package.

You might find my blog informative;

Hamburglar Robs Kids

Kids Forced to Volunteer

Teachers roped in

Patti made a good point about the school system becoming involved.

Teachers are conscripted to become Olympics volunteers whether they like it or not, but just try to get them to run intramural sports after school.

In recent Olympics regions many teachers do object, but they are ostracized because Olympics organization buy their way into schools and provide materials and supplies in trade for millions of dollars in focus groups and manufactured hype.

VANOC sells it to them as "an opportunity of a lifetime."

I'm curious how teachers were trained by VANOC to hype the kids over the last month in preparation for the unveiling. Did the teachers talk about the 2010 Games, get students to draw their own characters, maybe create contests for the best "critter?"

If they did, I hope they also warned young minds about the dangers of doping, and that it is unethical to cheat, or that their parents and they would be paying for the 2010 Olympics for their entire lives. I hope they also told the kids that many of their friends had to move out of the region because their friend's parents could no longer afford house prices, rents or taxes. I hope they also told the kids that residential taxes are already skyrocketing and will climb even higher in the next few years directly as a result of Olympics expense. I hope the also told the kids that RBC, HBC and Rona are going to make a financial killing.

Most people don't realize it, but using the school system to promote the Games is a hidden cost never accounted for in the books at the end of the day.

Taxpayers pick up the bill for teachers salaries and supplies, but it will never be counted as an Olympics expense in the summer of 2010 tally.

Gordo's & Jack's follies

Why do we expect anything else from this gang? They have shown us that they have no idea what is good, bad or ugly. Ask 100 people, and 80 or more will say that these "mascots" are truly bad. Listening to the mainstream media, sounds like they have drank the kool-aid though, supporting their masters wishes. These Olympics people are pandering to a certain market, and to that end it shows to me that they are not the things that we hold to be true representations of out country's desires. Cute? Not really. Here is how this is going to work out..... They won't sell as many as they want. They will discount them away from our eyes, use lots of money for advertising these ugly things. Hide the cost within a budget, somewhere. Then report how well they are selling! Our dime, or should I say our dollars will be wasted again. The crap is running from the top. From Gordo down to Poole, and so on. Maybe gordo should worry more about his involvement in the “railgate”. Oops! Am I allowed to talk like that? Too late.

Slim

Regarding a list of sponsors, you can start below.

The most effective way to make a boycott work online is to let these companies know how you feel. Simply refusing to buy their products or services doesn't get your message across effectively.

All sponsors have email addresses or forms on their websites. You can also use platforms like Facebook or MySpace.

Send them a polite message regarding your views of their participation.

Send them a link to this page for starters.

They'll get the message.

And don't forget to copy VANOC too !!

One other thing Slim, whenever you run into someone who is excited about becoming a volunteer, talk to them politely and calmly about how they are contributing to the economic struggle in BC and Canada.

Pretend you're Al Gore. How would he get the message across?

VANOC will argue that by not volunteering you will be contributing to the downfall of 2010. Don't believe them though. It is never a good idea to throw good money after bad. The only people to suffer will be sponsors, and your message is sure to get their attention, especially when they get it a few hundred thousand times from different people around the world.

People in past Olympics regions are pissed off too. Ask them to send a message on your behalf. I did this a few years ago when VANOC was trying to intimidate The Olympia restaurant on Denman, and 600 people from Korea almost immediately signed the petition telling VANOC to back off and leave the little restaurant alone. Seoul Korea hosted the Olympics in 1998, so they were sensitive to the issue and more than happy to help out.

Be nice, but firm with people who have plans to volunteer because most really don't know the back story and often operate on misinformation fed to them by news media.

Many people still regard the Olympics in exactly the same way they did when they were kids. Who didn't dream of being an Olympic athlete when they were ten?

It's important to realize and appreciate that there are still some very good things about the Olympics, so don't throw the baby out with the bath water.

We will be better off if we can convince sponsors to pick up all the costs, not just a tiny portion. If they think that the world will turn on them they will be inclined to open their wallets a little wider to save face.

2010 Sponsors
http://www.vancouver2010.com/en/OrganizingCommittee/SponsorsPartners/Sponsors

World Partners
http://www.vancouver2010.com/en/OrganizingCommittee/SponsorsPartners/WorldwideOlympicPartners

National Partners
http://www.vancouver2010.com/en/OrganizingCommittee/SponsorsPartners/NationalPartners

Official Supporters
http://www.vancouver2010.com/en/OrganizingCommittee/SponsorsPartners/OfficialSupporters

Official Suppliers
http://www.vancouver2010.com/en/OrganizingCommittee/SponsorsPartners/OfficialSuppliers

Government Partners
http://www.vancouver2010.com/en/OrganizingCommittee/SponsorsPartners/GovernmentPartners

...creepy lil' animal thangs...

Oh, I know G...

ALL of it smells of so much of the corporate\ government corruption that we are oh too familiar with relative to this 2010 Olympics. And those lil' mascot beasts are simply Creepy with a capital "C".

Oh, and the Vancouver Island Marmot sidekick...give me a break. That’s just a slick cover for bad publicity. ie:Wolf killings, cougar killings, Golden Eagle killings, millions of dollars spent on a marmot "recovery" center on Mt. Washington, all the while Timber West and Weyerhaeuser were STILL clear cutting these poor endangered animals habitat... So pathetic.

And wait, there's more. What happened to the SPIRIT BEAR MASCOTT?? Oh, of course, they HAD to dumb it down like they did...too much heat on the clear cutting of their habitat that is happening today. And, now that they want to send tankers down the Inside Passage, they don't want to make too big of a fuss about the Spirit Bear that lives there, because people might care too much and shut the Tanker issue down, or at least delay it... hmmmm, lots to think about. It is amazing what people will do when they are not being watched eh??

Right on...I agree lynn. And what James Burns said imo is indeed worth repeating even again:

Yeah, look at these creepy little animaly thangs, bought by your tax dollars. What a joke.

Good comments all... Thanks.

Peace,

Bear

I love the Comments

You guys are great!! I was hoping the mascot would be a big giant dollar sign representing the profits that BC's business community expects bank off the backs of everybody else.....

Oh well, the cute little guys will have to do!!

Gosh, I sort of thopught we

Gosh, I sort of thopught we ended up with the Olympics to watch winter sports at it's best. we end up with a gang that stole the symbol of northern travel. Got copyright on a whole bunch of things and now haul out some cheaply made Chinese toys for the suckers to buy. It would be proper to at least construct the toys in BC not some Chines sweat shop. Most of u ordinary folks can't afford to go to those events but ordinary folks have been shelling out for this bunch of characters on assorted VANOC Jobs. The final records of expenses might by now be of a concern for a lot of us. But the show goes on and on and on.

Run that by me again

"The final records of expenses might by now be of a concern for a lot of us."

Why should it be? the founding heads of this event assured us it would pay for itself, no expense to taxpayers in the end. They decalred themselves willing to back that up with their personal guarantee, i.e. if there is a deficit and they can't make it good in cash, we will be entitled to sell them for organ harvesting to someone in China.

At first...

At first I thought they were stupid and a waste of money, but now I think they're kind of cute. Kids like them, and that's what they're for.

And I'm glad there isn't a Spirit Bear mascot. Gag. Just because some people believe the bear has religious significance doesn't mean it's representative of the entire province. They live on and around one island on the coast. That's it.

At least the cutesey anime-style mascots represent a variety of BC animals and culture.

Lucky China...

Dang, sure wish we had a catchy name like Bejing. "Genocide Games" now thats a stand out name, it really has a distinct flavour to it. Come on everyone think! Maybe... "McLympics" The games that end world hunger! How about the "Gordon Games." The world should know who is responsible for leading this affair that addresses the environment and ends homelessness here in BC. Gordopic Games. Campbelympics. Go Big or Go Broke Games.... At least our mascots are adorable. I can't wait to start playing mascot games at home... "Quatchi's home, where's my frisky little mugwhomp?"

Olympic mascots

Has no one noticed that two of these mascots are direct rip-offs of the Beijing 2008 mascots? Google "Beijing mascots" and you'll see the obvious resemblance

checked back at the CBC comment board

And it is still going strong - although the site is appallingly slow in posting comments - more than 12 hours behind the current time at least.

Some comments have suggested the designs are quite innovative and they express satisfaction at how they cleverly morph First Nations' myths and characters into neat packages.

I'd actually be interested to hear what some First Nations people or others who are familiar with Salish (or other) mythology have to say about that. Others mention appropriation of voice and several imply that there is a racist element in those who criticize the 'Anime' aspect of the design which seems a bit of a stretch. Clearly though, the marketing hype and integration of the images with an online narrative has been carefully designed to appeal to kids of about 4 years of age.

Some other comments suggest these characters make nice cuddly play items and are popular with their children.

The most depressing thing I've noticed is the more or less totally uncritical attitude (among those who see the images and their toy incarnations as positive) to the act of actually going out and spending real hard-earned cash on these things. From Vanoc’s point of departure this is meant to generate some $46 million in royalties for the games.

Such an uncritical attitude concerning the manipulative nature of this cultural farce and its attached blatant commercial hype is truly shocking. I don't know if people are more gullible today than they used to be but I'm beginning to wonder. The cross promotion of the phenomenon in the print media (especially CanWest papers – but also very uncritically in the Globe and Mail) is, at least from a marketer’s point of view, disgustingly thorough.