In an interview on CBC, prior to the unveiling of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Mascots, Karo’s Director of Customer Experience Strategy, Anson Lee, suggested that a good mascot ought to pass the “what exactly is that?” test and, in an uncomplicated way, reflect the kind of place the games are being held.
The mascots Quachi, Miga, Sumi and sidekick MukMuk unveiled today seem to not heed that advice. But will they be successful? Why is this mascot menagerie drawing so much criticism?
If you define success as being their capacity to appeal to a broad audience and generate revenue, these mythical cross-bred creatures may work very well. Working in their favour is their Japanese pop-culture inspired appearance – considering North America is a highly lucrative market for anime, manga and Pokémon (equally inexplicable creatures) games and related toys.
Many complaints heard about the mascots tend to follow the form of “what does ____ have to do with Vancouver?” and perhaps that was the greatest challenge – how do you simply reflect Vancouver? What does the brand of Vancouver represent? Especially in a multicultural city that we live in today, our appreciation of and sensitivity to diversity is greater than ever. Is it even possible for one symbol to represent the texture and mixture of environment and character present in Vancouver?
In the end, a symbol (or mascot) eventually represents what it represents. In other words, given time, these mascots will have everything to do with the experience of the 2010 Games in Vancouver. Just like the maple leaf, today, represents everything Canadian.