Has London Lost Its Marbles? Poll Finds Half of Marketers Hate the New Olympic Mascots

Yesterday morning, Andrew announces that London just revealed their Olympic mascots for the 2012 Games and that they're a bit strange. Ok. Really strange. Wenlock and Mandeville look like an odd combination of the one-eyed alien chick from Fox's show Futurama, and those ultra creepy Teletubbies. Judging by a poll just released today, it appears half of marketers agree, they're creepy. A poll of 817 marketers by marketing recruitment specialist EMR, has found that just over half (51%) had a negative response to the mascots. Research also found that 22% labelled the design 'dreadful' (don't you just love the Brits sense of the dramatic?!!) and 12% said it was very poor while 16% said it was 'very good' and 8% rated it as 'excellent'. Despite the 'dreadful' and 'very poor' ratings, 30% of marketers did admit they preferred the characters to the Olympic logo.

To the London OC's credit, Wenlock and Mandeville were named in honour of Britain's Olympic heritage, and one could accuse them of going for the cute and conventional route. (This might actually be their marketing angle). True, but what's with the one eye thing? Wouldn't that scare the little ones? Then again, perhaps not. Kids don't seem to be at all creeped out by the Teletubbies or clowns. Grownups on the other hand, run screaming. In any case, the short animation film they've put together to introduce the mascots actually makes them look cute. Perhaps there's still hope for London's marketing plan. If I could make a suggestion: keep the mascots to animation only; a stadium of toddlers in tears is never a pretty sight.

Friday Breakthrough: Olympic Edition – Part Three

The Friday Breakthrough is Ottawa's weekly roundup of some of the Internet's best marketing and social media articles for a less-than-intense day at the office. For the duration of the Winter Olympic Games, the Friday Breakthrough will be dedicated to reviewing The Good, The Bad and The "What Were They Thinking?!" of the marketing of the Vancouver Olympics.

Part Three: What Were They Thinking?

And now, the hot mess of Olympic marketing blunders. First up, I must discuss the train wreck of Olympic uniforms that we had to endure during the Olympic ceremonies. Don’t get me wrong, I loved a lot of countries’ Olympic threads, but some were so hideous. (And yes, for any naysayers, Olympic gear has EVERYTHING to do with marketing). Germany takes the cake on the worst uniforms. Pink for girls and blue for boys – I wish I were kidding. Sure, my fashion expertise is limited to episodes of “Project Runway” and my LouLou subscription, but I mean come on! Heidi Klum must be throwing up right now. I couldn’t seem to find a pick of the German uniform disaster, but look for them during closing ceremonies. Trust me, you won’t miss team Deutschland. It’s a bad fashion wreck, you won’t be able to take your eyes off. Also, there’s a good chance you’ll feel better about your grade 8 sewing assignment in Home Ec class. Don’t worry, I wouldn’t have you walk away without viewing a most excellent Olympic fashion faux-pas, I have included a pic of the Norwegian curling team.

Next up: bandwagon jumping of provincial tourism served up with the subtlety of Kanye West. Sure, the spirit of the Olympic Games has always diluted by the onslaught of advertising, sponsorship and press, but am I the only one who finds the constant running of the B.C. and Ontario tourism ads blatant attempts to cash in? I just have one question for British Columbia Tourism: How many of them ACTUALLY call B.C. home?

So who has reached the summit of ultimate Olympic blunders? The hot mess goes to Cold FX. There are several spots featuring Canadian Olympic athletes, all touting the benefits of this cold remedy. Uber cheesy and filmed with the quality that makes you think that local community programming has a bigger budget to work with. Also, the copywriting on the Clara Hughes spot reminds me of feminine hygiene ad from 1962 or something: “I guess it’s not a secret any more.” No Clara, it’s no secret that Cold FX seriously needs to reconsider their advertising. In the words of Charlie Brown: “Good grief!”

My apologies for not attaching the soon-to-be classic Clara Hughes spot, blame it on YouTube. If you’re any Olympic fan at all, you’ve already seen it 74 times at least and if you haven’t - go watch the Olympics!

I hope you enjoyed this three part series, I sure did. Be sure to catch our post-Olympic Friday Breakthrough next week.

Friday Breakthrough: Olympic Edition – Part Two

The Friday Breakthrough is Ottawa’s weekly roundup of some of the Internet’s best marketing and social media articles for a less-than-intense day at the office. For the duration of the Winter Olympic Games, the Friday Breakthrough will be dedicated to reviewing The Good, The Bad and The “What Were They Thinking?!” of the marketing of the Vancouver Olympics.

Part Two: The Bad WonderBread



“Let’s throw some winter sports gear on the usual cute kids we use and they’ll be so adorable no one will notice our lack of an idea.” Wrong.

So much of this latest round of Olympic advertising isn’t so much “bad” as it is purely mediocre. Safe, nothing unexpected, it gets the message across while drowning in mediocrity. Kinda makes me long for some more of the self-indulgent, big-budget shenanigans of Coca-Cola and the other commercial stars of the last Super Bowl offering. My commentary on Bell, Petro Canada and Panasonic’s Olympic performance: “Meh.”

Don’t miss next week’s Friday Breakthrough when we serve up one hot mess of Olympic Marketing. We advise you to be sitting down for it. The trainwreck that is “What Were They Thinking?!” makes its Olympic debut only on MB’s Friday Breakthrough.

Friday Breakthrough: Olympic Edition Part One

The Friday Breakthough is Ottawa’s weekly roundup of some of the Internet’s best marketing and social media articles for a less-than-intense day at the office. For the duration of the Winter Olympic Games, the Friday Breakthrough will be dedicated to reviewing The Good, The Bad and The “What Were They Thinking?!” of the marketing of the Vancouver Olympics.

Part One: The Good

1. Nike’s Force Fate

Nike nails it with “Force Fate”. No commercial in recent memory better captures the attitude of our determined athletes. And what about those golden expectations? Their defiant retort: “Destiny doesn’t decide if we win. We do.” Wicked line. Pow! They hit you in the gut with that. The music is killer, too. It’s a crank-up-your-ipod-I’m-gonna-run-10miles-flat-out kind of song. Honestly, if this spot doesn’t get you psyched up for Team Canada Hockey at Olympics, I don’t know what will.

If there’s one downfall for the commercial, it’s how pretty it looks. It’s shot beautifully, which makes me wish that it wasn’t. The attitude of this spot is so gritty that it leaves me wanting imagery that matches. Give me raw footage of practice; with sweat everywhere, whistles blowing, coaches yelling, and the heavy breathing of athletes pushing themselves past their breaking point. Now that is some serious “destiny” butt kicking. That would be the ultimate “Force Fate”.

2. CTV’s Believe, narrated by Donald Sutherland and set to the music of Oscar-winning composer Howard Shore.

Now I am a self-confessed Olympic junkie who loves those touchy-feely athlete profile stories that tug at your heart strings, but I have to say CTV has done a nice job with their promo spots. Donald Sutherland has the perfect pitch to carry the tone of the Canadian Olympic dream and adding in the music from the guy who won an Oscar for his work on the Lord of The Rings trilogy isn’t too shabby either.

Although I love the spots that profile our athletes, I am not such a fan of the other “Believe” spots that feature young Canadians. The thought is right and the message is right, but somehow it doesn’t feel authentic. It doesn’t pull at my heartstrings and it seems forced, like I know those kids were fed those lines. Canadian kids do have Olympic dreams and they’ll tell you about them, but I just don’t buy that they would tell you in the way that CTV is presenting. So overall, they got it right with Donald Sutherland, but they dropped the ball on the spots featuring the kids.

3. IOC (International Olympic Committee) – The Best of Us

This IOC spot with the cartooned athletes from the different continents in their respective Olympic gear. In the spot, these enormous cartooned athletes are standing on top of their home continents and each have a rope. They pull hard until they bring all the continents together. The different continents coming together is like a visual interpretation of the Olympic rings – emphasized by the continental colours. It’s imaginative, memorable and fun to watch. Kudos to the IOC!

Stay tuned for next week’s Friday Breakthrough. It’s gonna be ugly. I mean bad. Actually, Olympic marketing bad. Ok. You get the idea.