olympic mascots revealed

this week, the new mascots for the 2010 olympic and paralympic winter games in vancouver were introduced to the public... while they are very cute, i do have some objections...

if you haven't already met them, say hello to sumi (an animal guardian spirit), quatchi (a sasquatch), and miga (a sea-bear)...

also say hello to stereotype city! according to the vancouver organizing committee (VANOC), these mascots "needed to represent the people, geography, and spirit of British Columbia and Canada." congrats, you did a bang up job... apparently the people of b.c. and canada are all native people that live in snow-covered forests.

for too long, canada has been portrayed as a snow-covered country populated by natives americans and the french... luckily, since the 2010 games are across the country from quebec, we are spared a frenchie. these mascots draw from native influences. i know native culture is a large part of canada's/b.c.'s history but there is SOOO much more to canada AND b.c. than that! why not branch out a little bit? multi-cultural mascots anyone?

but then again, i did some checking and apparently, mascots are traditionally highly stereotypical... amik the beaver for the '76 montreal games; sam the patriotic eagle for the '84 los angeles games; syd the platypus, olly the kookaburra, and mille the echidna for the 2000 sydney games; greek gods athena & phevos for the 2004 greece games; jingjing the panda for the 2008 beijing games... but most of these places har highly amorphous culturally or pratriotically... in canada we're known as a mosaic - we're all different and from all over! how can you pick just one theme to unite us all?and i understand that these are the winter games but does that really mean all the mascots have to be associated with the snow and the cold? favourite sports include hockey, snowboarding, and alpine skiing... favourite food: hot chocolate... favourite colour: chill blue...
damn, you know those days when it's so cold your sled dogs won't leave the igloo and even your snowmobile won't start? those are just killer... if you don't know what i'm talking about ask your second cousin jim who lives in canada... i probably know him!
you know, we DO occassionally get summer up here in the great white north!

so these cute little creatures are supposed to "appeal to children all over the world"... good thing you made such good mascots for the baby einstein olympic games! it's not just about hooking the kids... a majority of people interested in the olympics are adults. advertising PBS special style isn't going to appeal to your adult audience...

and no wonder it costs SOO much to go see the olympics!!! in order to come up with these cute litle dudes, VANOC had to narrow the field down from 177 designers! then they brought the top 5 to vancouver to see presentations. once the concept/designer was decided upon, there was a lengthy period of "conceptual development, top secret research and focus testing" as well as high security review/approval meetings. top secret research?!? are these critters a-bombs in disguise? is canada using the vancouver olympics to restart the cold war? are they UFOs that landed in prince rupert and are now being cleverly disguised in plain sight? did they shoot JFK? who knows... all i know is that it sounds expensive!