Manga Monsters and Risky PR

Looking carefully at the one-eyed Manga nightmares that are the 2012 Olympic mascots, I have been wondering at the designers’ thinking – and not as negatively as you might suspect. I think there may be a classicist at work behind these Cyclopses.

According to Hesiod, the Cyclopses were strong, stubborn giants who were “abrupt of emotion” – they were also synonyms for brute strength and power, and their name was invoked in connection with massive masonry.

I wonder if these mighty mythological monsters are what inspired the designers to create the Olympic Terrortubbies? Are they meant to symbolise mighty marketing? Or does the fact that, if you stand them facing one another, they look like the 2012 logo have anything to do with it?

At the end of the day, this brace of Jabba-the-Hutt-sperm will generate vast quantities of cash. But it will not be because of the design ethic – more due to the might, ubiquity and brute force bestowed on them by the great Lord LOCOG.

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Further to my speculation yesterday about Gary Lineker’s resignation from the Mail on Sunday, I wonder if his avowedly principled move is not going to be a very risky one for him. It was smart – but risky – PR.

There are few papers more doggedly vituperative than the Mail, on Sunday or during the week, and I suspect that, like a cornered badger, they may strike out at Lineker. He has a clean image but a colourful past – there’s every likelihood that they will find something to play with.

One always has to be careful how one picks a fight with the tabloids, but Lineker was always going to damned if he quit and damned if he didn’t. If I were advising him on PR matters, I’d urge him to be on serious guard, just in case the Mail on Sunday try to take revenge.