2010 Vancouver Olympic & Paralympic Super-Thread

[LotusLand]

Here is a quote that ensure the London committee is on the pipe: "London 2012 organizers are confident that the choice of mascots will hit the spot".

I agree from a marketing standpoint this is an epic fail. WTF are those things!!

[SpongeG]

those are such brit names <3 it but they look stupid

[mr.x]

Originally Posted by LotusLand

Here is a quote that ensure the London committee is on the pipe: "London 2012 organizers are confident that the choice of mascots will hit the spot".

I agree from a marketing standpoint this is an epic fail. WTF are those things!!

lolll....they said the same thing about their logo, which had an animation that would induce seizures to some people.

[GeeCee]

wtf

[jsbertram]

And I thought Heidi and Howdy were an embarrassment
(Calgary 1988 Winter Games)


(from: http://thisiskat.wordpress.com/2007/11/28/o-kaaay/)

And I knew one of the guys who was 'Heidi', but only a few of his best friends still call him that.
Lets just say "Heidi-Ho" took on a new meaning for some of us in on the joke during the 88 Olympics.

[SpongeG]

Latvian criminals scammed VANOC ticket system for $2-million

A group of Latvian criminals scammed VANOC and ticket sellers on the fan-to-fan Olympics site for close to $2-million at the tail end of the Winter Games, officials say.

The group used fake credit cards to purchase tickets online on the site which VANOC was running with VISA to help facilitate ticket sales, said Renée Smith-Valade, vice-president of communications. The scammers swept in at a very opportune time – when Canadians and international Olympics fans were scrambling to get tickets to the hockey finals and other high profile events. Tickets to ski finals at Cyprus Mountain and speed skating events were also bought and sold.

About 218 people who sold tickets on the site to the scammers will be reimbursed this week, she said. In total, the Olympics committee sent out more than 13,000 cheques to account holders who were legitimately using the website where the bogus transactions took place.

“Our first priority is to make sure customers that posted to the tickets to the site which were then purchased fraudulently were made whole,” she said. “We're now just finishing up and we're still figuring it out with VISA and our insurers and other involved parties to find out how it will ultimately be paid for.”

The fraudulent activity was spotted by staff at Tickets.com, another partner on the site, who raised a red flag to VANOC, which then contacted the Vancouver Police department.

“One to two million dollars is nothing to sneeze at, but when you consider the magnitude of our ticketing program, it was contained very quickly,” she said.

Revenue for the ticketing program was slated at $260-million – a target VANOC readily met.

It's the only case of ticketing fraud VANOC has had to deal with, said Ms. Smith-Valade.

According to the Vancouver Sun, two Latvian nationals with suspected organized crime ties pleaded guilty in a Vancouver court to fraud over $5,000 in connection with the ticket fraud. Charges against a third Latvian national were stayed.

The Vancouver Police Department's Constable Lindsey Houghton told the paper that the Latvians were part of a larger group and used legitimate passports to get into B.C. in February before the Games. The scammers were flying from Victoria to Vancouver regularly pick up their tickets.

Once the scheme was identified, police arrested the suspects on one of their ventures to a VANOC ticket outlet, Constable Houghton said.

The Vancouver Police Department did not return calls to The Globe late Tuesday.

More than 18,000 people used the fan-to-fan website in the three years tickets were sold there, Ms. Smith-Valade said.

....

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/nati...ket-system-for-2-million/article1573728/

[SpongeG]

firebomb in Ottawa was related to the Vancouver Olympics...

Anarchy among anarchists after firebomb

OTTAWA - Anarchists who claim they firebombed a Royal Bank in downtown Ottawa are drawing sharp criticism from fellow users of a website on which they posted video of the bombing.

Postings on the ottawa.indymedia.org site's comment page attached to the video call the alleged bombers "domestic terrorists" to straight up "idiots'. Others contain profanity-laced diatribes.

The video was posted at about noon Tuesday and expresses anger toward Royal Bank as a major sponsor of the 2010 Olympics games on what some critics claim is Native land.

"You have crossed the line. The sympathy I or others may have had for the exploitation of B.C. Native land is now greatly diminished," wrote one person. "Setting things on fire, which may have unintentionally led to murder as happened in Athens, is beyond the limits of the acceptable."

Three for four people were seen fleeing in an SUV shortly after the RBC was torched by a firebomb at about 3:30 a.m. Tuesday.

A short video shows two men exiting a side door of the branch as a large orange firebomb explodes inside. The video was shot from across the road by a third person.

The fire caused at least $300,000 in damages and shut down the bank for an undetermined time. No one was reported injured but it appeared from the video one of the anarchists barely escaped the flames.

"I can only hope that whoever did this feels the full wrath of the law. I feel no sympathy for RBC, but likewise I will feel no remorse for the f***heads who did this when they are thrown in jail for 5 years," wrote a person with the handle Canadian Socialist.

Another commenter writes that the actions were "more cowardly than suicide bombers in the middle east."

Some commenters, however, defend the actions of the group.

"Burn it down, blow it up, kick it 'til it breaks!!! See you at the G20 comrades, and f**k the system," said Class Warrior.

The group vows to be at the G20 and G8 summits next month in Huntsville, Ont., and Toronto.

"The Native Community does not condone the actions of these people. They may have been trying to prove a point but went about it all the wrong way," said True Warrior.

...

http://www.torontosun.com/news/canada/2010/05/19/14005326.html

[Prometheus]

"Olympic mascots Wenlock and Mandeville branded 'patronising rubbish'": http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersp...deville-branded-patronising-rubbish.html

[trofirhen]

Originally Posted by mr.x

^ they don't have cute names either...they're called "Mandeville and Wenlock".

Stuffy English pomposity rears its head again.

[SpikePhanta]

I guess theyre one eyed because of the London Eye.....


boy what a poor joke.

[sacrifice333]

In other news... I received a refund cheque from VANOC today for a Paralympic event I had tickets too that was postponed (but basically 'cancelled').

[mr.x]

Originally Posted by SpikePhanta

I guess theyre one eyed because of the London Eye.....


boy what a poor joke.

Actually, the one-eyes are suppose to be tourist cameras....or better, CCTV cameras. :p

[SpongeG]

they are one eyed snakes in the form of dildos

[RobH]

The men in suits are horrendous, but as animated characers they're really rather good (or at least much better than the costumed versions)

• Video Link

[Delirium]

^ wow that was so boring! but hmmm..look who's getting defensive. i remember quite clearly you were the one telling us to chill out over the bad press Vancouver was getting by British media. Looks like its your turn now

funny article in today' sun

World unites online against Olympic mascots
VANCOUVER SUN MAY 19, 2010

Remember back a few months when the British press branded our Olympics the Worst Games Ever, before the first weekend had even passed?

Well, in what could only be a bid to wrestle that title away from us — in case our record-setting 14 gold medals and vibrant downtown core didn't already make their words seem ridiculous — organizers of the 2012 Games in London on Wednesday introduced their Olympic mascots to the world.

Meet Wenlock and Mandeville, one-eyed creatures immediately dubbed "patronizing rubbish" by design experts in Britain. Moulded from steel left over from the last girder on the Olympic stadium, London's 2012 mascots are neither cuddly nor cute but organizers say the gleaming one-eyed metallic forms will strike a chord with children.

"What is it about these Games which seems to drive the organizers into the embrace of this kind of patronizing, cretinous infantilism?" asked British design critic Stephen Bayley.

"Why can't we have something that makes us sing with pride, instead of these appalling computerized Smurfs for the iPhone generation? If the Games are going to be remembered by their art then we can declare them a calamitous failure already."

Wenlock and Mandeville were introduced after 18 months of planning to come up with a merchandising gimmick that will keep the cash tills ringing; Games organizers are aiming for $23.8 million in revenue from Olympics memorabilia.

Despite their alien-like forms and disturbing resemblance to partly blinded Teletubbies, 2012 organizers say the mascots recognize Britain's Olympic heritage.

Wenlock is named after the village of Much Wenlock, where Pierre de Coubertin visited in 1890 and where his idea for a modern Olympics was born, while Mandeville is named after the Stoke Mandeville Hospital where the Paralympic movement began shortly after the Second World War.

Wenlock and Mandeville both have one large eye, representing a camera lens so they can record what they see. They cannot speak, they don't smile and their features are borrowed from London's iconic taxis.

It's safe to say 2010 mascot Quatchi could kick their alien butts, with no help from fellow mascots Miga, Sumi or Mukmuk.

Reaction on the Internet was predictably dour, with a tidal wave of tweets twittering away about the mouthless pair's many faults:

- "Make your own Olympic mascots by simply scrunching silver foil into two completely random shapes." — VizTopTips

- "Worst Olympic mascots ever. I may have to skip those games just to avoid those creepy blobs. New Olympic Record for ugly!" — Crayonbeam London 2012

- "Olympic mascots: Chuckle Brothers as drawn by Dali when on acid after not sleeping for 4 days." — Robinbogg

-"I, for one welcome our new Olympic mascot overlords." — Jonnypage

- "What the ...? The London Olympic mascots look like alien lobsters." — docdez

- "London hoping to raise $21M by selling one-eyed Olympic mascots to children. What am I missing here?" — darrenrovell1

- "Olympic Mascots exceed all unexpectations. Designed by a weird big-headed grandpa in a shed." — wonkyshop

- "Hey London! Your Olympic mascots are like shiny pee-stained robots with asparagus hands." — thisisnation

- "Olympic mascots .... Nothing says Dynamic World City like aliens with poor depth perception." — Tigerstolly

- "Further evidence that London's Olympic organizers are heavy recreational drug users." — electricmeat

- "Just seen the new Olympic mascots. I love them for all the wrong reasons. They look like murderous cycloptic Teletubbies." — BenBo92

Comments added to stories about the mascots were just as negative:

- My eight year old looked at them and pulled a face. Having followed the Winter Olympics in Vancouver we expected so much better."

- God have some mercy! Is there anything uglier than those two things? Who in their right mind created these?!

- These are so embarrassingly cringeworthy — they look like they are wetting themselves.

- My god, what on Earth were they thinking when designing the 2012 Olympic mascots! really that is bad!

- These embarrassing, humourless, banal and ultimately sinister characters, with their all-seeing single camera eye, have no spark, no imagination and no heart.

- And you took the piss with our Olympics? — Todd From Vancouver

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/World...mascots/3049210/story.html#ixzz0oTTMCNnr

[twoNeurons]

Not sure what to make of them yet. I like them better than Beijing's bears.

[RobH]

Originally Posted by Delirium

^ wow that was so boring! but hmmm..look who's getting defensive. i remember quite clearly you were the one telling us to chill out over the bad press Vancouver was getting by British media. Looks like its your turn now

My turn?

Not getting defensive at all mate, just giving you the animation to look at since it hasn't been posted yet. I've already said I agree that the costumes are horrendous. But I quite like the animated versions. If you don't, fine.

And I didn't tell anyone to chill before; you were quite right to take exception to the trash our tabloids wrote. What I did take exception to was the handful of idiots in this thread who decided that was a good enough reason to write posts full of xenophobic rubbish. My posting history confirms that.

"I, for one welcome our new Olympic mascot overlords."

Love this one

[Spikester]

Originally Posted by RobH

Love this one

Me too, though I regret taking a sip of tea just before reading it.

[johnjimbc]

What's with the "Wowza! I forgot to cover my crotch. See! Look! Look!" effect on the one? .

As much as I hate mascots in general, the Vanoc ones actually grew on me after a while. They were kinda creature cute.

These just frighten me . . . more in the way clowns frighten kids. Child screeching in the park . . . "Mommy, please don't make me hug it! He's not wearing pants!"

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by johnjimbc

What's with the "Wowza! I forgot to cover my crotch. See! Look! Look!" effect on the one? .

As much as I hate mascots in general, the Vanoc ones actually grew on me after a while. They were kinda creature cute.

These just frighten me . . . more in the way clowns frighten kids. Child screeching in the park . . . "Mommy, please don't make me hug it! He's not wearing pants!"

I agree. Those things frighten me.