It was all about the children this week when Olympic organizers
finally unveiled three mascots for the 2010 Winter Games.
And if the Whistler kids are anything to go by the mascots,
Miga, Quatchi, and Sumi, will make cash registers ring for Olympic organizers.
“Miga is really cool, and I like them a lot,” said Hunter
Prall, a student at Spring Creek Elementary School.
“I am very excited for the Olympics, I can’t wait.”
Prall, along with other Whistler students in Grade 5 and 6,
were bussed down to the mascot unveiling event in Surrey on Tuesday. In all
about 800 kids watched and cheered as VANOC showed off the latest faces of the
Games in a 35-minute high tech stage show with dance, song, and special
effects.
“I really liked the show,” said Lauren Doak. “I like Sumi the
best.”
Said Max Peiffer, “I thought it was cool how the mascot from
Whistler flew across the stage. I think it is really good that the Olympics are
coming to Whistler and I want to go to tons of events.”
Whistler parent Sarah Sladen was also impressed.
“I thought the show was great, very uplifting and exciting,”
she said.
“The three different mascots are great and they each have
different personalities.”
The mascots, designed by Vancouver-based Meomi Design, draw on
aboriginal folklore and B.C. folklore.
Miga is a sea bear, a creature drawn from First Nation legend.
It is part orca and part bear, in this case a spirit bear.
Quatchi is a sasquatch who loves hockey, and Sumi is another
animal spirit, part Thunderbird, part black bear. He also wears the hat of an
orca whale, and is the guardian spirit.
And for the first time in Olympic history the mascots will have
a sidekick, Mukmuk, a Vancouver Island marmot.
“The designer, I think, did a remarkable job of looking at the
Olympic Games, looking at the region, at the country, at us, looking at past
Olympic history and recognizing one clear thing; this has got to be a marvel
for children,” said Vancouver Organizing Committee CEO John Furlong.
“They have to feel like they can connect to the characters.
“We really wanted to make sure that there would be no child
anywhere who would look at the program and think there is no one there they
could relate to...”
Furlong hasn’t got a favourite so far, though he admitted to
being partial to Mukmuk.
“I have to say I have a special place in my heart for Mukmuk,”
he said. “(He) eats all the time.”
While the audience Tuesday gave the mascots a big thumbs up
some websites are carrying criticisms including that they appear very much like
the Hello Kitty or Pokemon characters, and that they are not representative of
B.C. and Canada. Of the first 128 comments posted on the CBC website on Tuesday
afternoon, only 36 were positive.
Furlong, however, was adamant that they represent Canadian
values and will tell the B.C. and Canadian story around the world.
While the characters may be all about fun on the surface they
have a serious role in the Games: They are to help generate about $46 million
in royalties from licensed merchandise sales.
“To reach that we will have to gross at retail about $500 to
$600 million, so that is a very aggressive number,” said Dave Cobb, VANOC’s
executive vice president of marketing, revenues and communications. “But I
think we are on track to do that.
“We have had very good results so far and if the reaction of
the children to the mascots today is any indication, I think we will go home
today a little bit more confident that we will hit those numbers.”
But Simon Fraser University marketing professor Lindsay
Meredith raised some red flags.
“This will resonate with the kids,” he said. “The problem is
there is a whole huge market out there of adults who also respond to mascots
and it is not resonating there.”
He pointed to Miga, who some thought was a skunk or a panda,
neither of which represent Canada. And he said more adults exchange stuffies
than kids do.
That means VANOC will have to spend money to tell people
everywhere what the mascots are all about.
“(VANOC) just walked into a huge advertising budget problem,”
said Meredith.
“They are going to be spending money that I don’t frankly think
they had to spend because most of the adults are not clicking on these.
“(With Miga) we have a cross between an orca and a spirit bear
and the consumer identifies it as a skunk.
“Some of these are just not well known outside the Pacific
Northwest.”
All the mascots contain aboriginal lore. Four Host Nation CEO
Tewanee Joseph said that shows how deeply the aboriginal spirit has gone within
the Olympic Organizing Committee.
“Each thing that VANOC does is building more and more of the
culture that we have here into the Games,” he said.
“That is very positive and I don’t think it has happened at
this level in any other Games.
“With the Games Bid Corporation engaging the Chiefs early in
the Games process I think this is the result and it shows what can happen.”
Joseph was excited to see the Thunderbird represented. A strong
icon in aboriginal culture, it is seen as a guardian.
The mascots will also be looked at by aboriginal communities
now, said Joseph, who believes the three new Olympic mascots do respect First
Nations culture and stories.
“I think the main thing is to be respectful of our culture and
be respectful of our stories and ensure that it is done right,” he said.
“I think that is what we want to make sure that VANOC is
mindful of and I think they have done it to this point.
“We will ask our elders, we will ask our children, we will ask
our families what do they think of this and do they think it is it done
respectfully. I think that is important and that is the message we can carry
back to our partners in the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.”
In the end it will be the sales of the plush toys and all the
other Mascot paraphernalia which will tell the real story.
The stuffed animals will start at about $30 and will be sold in
Hudson’s Bay and its affiliated stores starting this week. Other merchandising
partners will have mascot goods for sale starting in the New Year.
In comparison, Beijing 2008 Summer Games officials have chosen
five cartoon mascots. Chinese experts are predicting that they will bring in
about $493 million U.S.
A Burnaby company won the right to supply the plush toys, but
they will be manufactured in China as Canada does not have the capacity to make
enough said Cobb.
“I think they will fit quite nicely (under a Christmas tree),” he said.