London mascots make Izzy look good
Whatever else the London Olympics accomplish, Atlantans should be grateful for one thing: moving our 1996 mascot Izzy down on the list of most bizarre Olympic mascots.
The Atlanta mascot Izzy was considered strange at the time.
Some have described Wenlock and Mandeville as Orwellian.
But now come the London mascots — there are two of them — Wenlock and Mandeville, whose strange appearance makes Izzy look rather conventional.
Londoners and visitors are apparently not enamored of the pair, the AP reports.
Since they were selected as the official mascots back in 2009, detractors have had a field day with the pair, questioning how faceless monsters fashioned out of “drops of steel” — the duo’s creation story — won out over 100 other designs by artists and agencies.
“It’s not so friendly,” said Jenny Zhang, looking at a Wenlock while in London from China for business. “We don’t see a smiling face, it’s not a friendly eye. It’s just watching you.”
Their watchful eyes — described in many forums as toy versions of London’s omnipresent CCTV lenses — seem to have caused the most discomfort, drawing Orwellian comparisons and references to surveillance states. Wenlock figurines in police gear have come under fire from dozens of online commenters decrying the “fascist playthings” and “totalitarian toys.”
Actor Ewan McGregor tweeted his disappointment after seeing plastic mascot statutes in London’s Regents Park: “With this country’s artistic heritage this one eyed joke made me sad.”
But at least the mascots’ names, unlike Izzy, bear some relevance to the Olympics.
Wenlock was named after the Shropshire town of Much Wenlock, which helped inspire Pierre de Coubertin to found the modern Olympics; Mandeville is named for Stoke Mandeville, the town where the Paralympics began.
The pair are likely to be featured in some form Friday during the Opening Ceremony, with an estimated television audience of 4 billion watching. And if the critics are right, this time the mascots may be watching back.
What are your memories of Izzy and the Atlanta Olympics — good, bad, or in the words of Juan Antonio Samaranch, “exceptional?”
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71 comments Add your comment
Tom
July 25th, 2012
7:18 am
Muhammad Ali and Celine Dion were awesome. Having the marathon do their turnaround at my alma mater Oglethorpe, pretty cool. Being drenched by pop-up t’storms at beach volleyball with little place for shelter, kinda frustrating. Did find it somewhat amusing when phone reps kept transferring New Mexico ticket orders to an international department….or when a bus driver pulled over in panic before going on the busy interstate, and they had to get another bus quick. Then you had the pickup trucks parading on the track at the opening ceremonies. Kinda shook my head at the sight of that, but hey… it’s Georgia!
Tom
July 25th, 2012
7:19 am
Oh, And while the park bomb was tragic, and made me and all of us angry, Atlanta came together and moved on. Hopefully, that’s not the only thing the games will be remembered for
rob
July 25th, 2012
8:14 am
I watched the olympics from up north, 4 years later i moved to this city and have loved it every since, my only question is, why didnt they just run the marathon around 285?
Stan
July 25th, 2012
8:35 am
No, the London mascot does not make Izzy look good. When it comes to designing a mascot, perhaps the marketing department should consider the rule for selecting a vice-president: first, do no harm. Izzy embarrassed Atlanta, plain and simple.
Strange Murphy
July 25th, 2012
8:55 am
Olympic mascots are a stupid marketing ploy. Always thought they were stupid.
Roz
July 25th, 2012
8:56 am
Watching the women’s 5,000 meter race in Atlanta and seeing the crowd rise to their feet and cheer on the last runner crossing the finish line – a good three laps behind the others. The respect that the spectators had for that woman – who was the best from her country – brought tears to my eyes and made me realize the true meaning of the Games.
Abner
July 25th, 2012
9:04 am
The ajc.com headline for this story- “London’s characters outdim Atlanta’s”
Outdim? That is not even a word. Come on guys/gals, you’re supposed to be writers. At least use real words.
TL
July 25th, 2012
9:06 am
Riding MARTA and being crammed in like sardines. Someone at the 5 pts station started chanting USA and the crowd went with it and was so much fun. Hearing all of the voices from all over the world. It brought the world to a young woman and gave her a new love of it.
Charles
July 25th, 2012
9:07 am
I am waiting to see the opening / closing ceremonies at the London Olympics. See if there ceremonies will be better, same or worst than the ones we had in Atlanta back in 1996 which was a complete garbage! Compare all these to the one in Beijing Olympics in 2008. World class and doubt any country on this planet will ever perform such ceremonies so much beauty, culture & grace like China.
Amanda
July 25th, 2012
9:09 am
I was a young teenager during the Olympics and my brother was about 8. We thought Izzy was great. Mascots are geared to kids not adults.
BlackMoses
July 25th, 2012
9:11 am
Sorry….Nothing can make Izzy look good.
Made in China
July 25th, 2012
9:12 am
No one will ever top China.
JSM
July 25th, 2012
9:12 am
Dont be too obsessed with Izzy. I watched the games from 1000 miles away and had 0 recollection of the mascot until this story. People around the country and the world just dont care what Atlanta chose 16 years ago. Much the same way people outside the South dont care for sweet tea or reliving the Civil War every day of our lives.
JSM
July 25th, 2012
9:19 am
btw…they are missing out on the sweet tea!!
Hendog315
July 25th, 2012
9:22 am
JSM—you are a “Damn Yankee”!!
Road Scholar
July 25th, 2012
9:24 am
JSM: That’s the War of the Northern Aggression….there is nothing “civil” about war!
Izzy was ok! Did the one on the right wet it’s pants?
Patrick
July 25th, 2012
9:27 am
When my friend and I went to see an Olympic baseball game, we ran into a lot of the vendors selling souvenirs and other krep. I made sure to not buy something that had Izzy’s likeness on it. I think I ended up buying a Velcro wallet that had “Atlanta 1996″ and the Olympic flame on it; he bought a headband that could be filled with water and frozen. I think he also bought an Izzy doll for a cousin or something. That was the weirdest-looking thing I had seen in my life, but the new mascots take the cake.
Izzy the Great
July 25th, 2012
9:28 am
I loved Izzy! I was still living in Atlanta and worked at Advantage International, one of the key marketing companies for the Olympics. I just missed meeting Grant Hill in our office, but I got to meet the beautiful blue eyes that were attached to Rowdy Gaines! I have a jumbo size Izzy that is as tall as me and it sits in my five year old’s room. He love it! In spite of the bombing, the Olympic spirit in Atlanta was incredible! I was proud of my “second” hometown (originally from Macon)! As far as I’m concerned, nobody else can do it any better than The ATL did!
JOD
July 25th, 2012
9:31 am
Between the 2, I would choose Izzy, blue maggot that he is. I do wish we hadn’t used the chrome pick ups – that was just tacky and weird.
We attended the parades and visited the Budweiser clydesdale barn – I still have the bow from one of their tails that the trainer gave me. It was a lot of fun.
@Roz and TL – Great memories!
JSM
July 25th, 2012
9:38 am
Hen…i like the Yankees and Braves
Road, you are proof of what i meant. 150+ years ago…time to let it go brother. ease gently into the 21st century
Barbara
July 25th, 2012
9:48 am
I liked Izzy. Have a stuffed one. Still have an Izzy magnet on my refrigerator. This Olympics in England brings back the excitement of that time. One of Atlanta’s 2X Olympic Gold Medal winners was featured this past week on TV. She exchanged her running shoes for heels and has a well known beauty salon now. I wonder if any of my pins are now worth anything?
PJ
July 25th, 2012
10:04 am
This is to Olympic mascots as Obama is to Jimmy Carter
darren
July 25th, 2012
10:09 am
Now if they can just build an Olympic torch that looks worse than our McDonald’s french fry box, we will feel some satisfaction on two fronts.
Kelly
July 25th, 2012
10:09 am
My family and I have wonderful memories of the 1996 Olympics – attending basketball, soccer, volleyball events. We enjoyed concerts at Centennial Park and all the exciting things there. My children were young and they loved wearing Izzy shirts and hats! It brings a smile to my face remembering how much the joy that had seeing the Izzy mascot at one of the Olympic basketball games.
John Hall
July 25th, 2012
10:15 am
Brer Rabbit should have been our mascot for the Atlanta Olympics. The disgusting one we got honored no past, no heritage. As a native Atlantan I did not go to any of the “Games” and could have cared less……..we kept our State flag intact and refused to change it. For that I am proud of my fellow Southerners!
Yup
July 25th, 2012
10:16 am
“Outdim” is perfectly cromulent word.
heartofdarkness
July 25th, 2012
10:31 am
Izzy pretty well summed up the Olympic venture in 1996.
Road Scholar
July 25th, 2012
10:41 am
JSM: History is history. It is there whether you like it or not. I had always referred to it as the Civil War…until I took a history class in Georgia! Remember that this state is run by Repub carpetbaggers!
Kar
July 25th, 2012
10:45 am
Brer Rabbit? I can only imagine the outage at that one.
Izzy was apparently chosen to be as culturally blank as possible. Still stupid, but not a potential cultural weapon of mass destruction.
Statick
July 25th, 2012
10:48 am
Izzy “embarassed” Atlanta? Oh, Good Lord…
Izzy’s for kids.
Dee
July 25th, 2012
10:50 am
Really, now…the only people who complain about Olympic mascots are boylovers and sheepshaggers…
Olympic fan
July 25th, 2012
10:54 am
I loved the Atlanta Olympics- going to Centennial Park to enjoy the concerts and watch some of the activities that we could not get into on the big screens. The atmosphere (other than that awful night of the bombing) was wonderful. I volunteered at the Tennis Center and have great memories of seeing some of the medal ceremonies and meeting lots of interesting people.
Yelly Jelly
July 25th, 2012
11:00 am
Izzy was “Jerry Sandusky” before Jerry Sandusky was “Jerry Sandusky.”
So the London has Mascots
July 25th, 2012
11:00 am
Well compare to Izzy looks as good as china Mascot the two London macots look like 2 trogans for men that has a hole in both!
JSM
July 25th, 2012
11:01 am
lol Road….”took a history class in Georgia”. Is this the same GA that ranks near the bottom in education on a yearly basis? The one where the biggest system has major cheating scandals? Was your teacher a white southern lady teaching from southern ignorance or a minority teaching from a racial perspective? Hilarious…thanks for the laugh! Try reading some James Madison letters or another relevant source instead of southerners that think that the “March to the Sea” was worse than the Holocaust! hahahahaha…thanks again! Now, back to reality.
Yelly Jelly
July 25th, 2012
11:02 am
Izzy was like a Moderate running for President:
“It” tried to be EVERYTHING to EVERYBODY.
In doing so, it wound up being NOTHING to ANYONE.
Joe Mama
July 25th, 2012
11:02 am
They look like they’re members of The Residents.
JSM
July 25th, 2012
11:02 am
lol @ sheepshaggers…adding to my vocabulary now
Beer Drinker
July 25th, 2012
11:03 am
Bud World in Centennial Park was AWESOME!!
Yelly Jelly
July 25th, 2012
11:03 am
Ordering a Chick-fil-A Chicken Nugget Platter for my Olympic Opening Ceremony Viewing Party sounds pretty good to me.
Yelly Jelly
July 25th, 2012
11:06 am
The name “The Ol’ Stiff One-Eye” comes to mind when I see those London mascots.
Yelly Jelly
July 25th, 2012
11:07 am
One-Eye’d Willie?
Yelly Jelly
July 25th, 2012
11:08 am
Is the “Tug of War with Cyclops” a 2012 Olympic Event at which Wenlock & Mandeville will be appearing?
JSM
July 25th, 2012
11:16 am
wait…i couldnt resist this reply to “took a history class”.
Was it rather….elementary?
“I remember the class, it was just between recess and lunch.” (borrowed from Good Will Hunting)
Capt Jack
July 25th, 2012
11:19 am
No way to sugar coat it, they both suck in every conceiveable way.
Peace
July 25th, 2012
11:47 am
PJ……does everything have to be soooo political????…..its the “Olympics”
Toinuhfish
July 25th, 2012
11:47 am
JSM, Delta’s ready when you are…ps this is a post about mascots, not history.
Joe Mama
July 25th, 2012
11:59 am
Tweedledum and Tweedlestupid.
Sanjeev
July 25th, 2012
12:00 pm
Izzy – looked like a big blue sperm if you ask me.
El Whoppo
July 25th, 2012
12:07 pm
If this was picked as the best of all entered, I can’t imagine what the worst looked like.
Joe Mama
July 25th, 2012
12:11 pm
El Whoppo — “0311, I’ve been telling these dunces about the UN treaty being discussed for a week and they refuse to admit its happening.”
I believe the worst one was a two-legged lump of Shepherds’ Pie, wearing a crown and waving a Union Jack.
Fred
July 25th, 2012
12:50 pm
People said a lot of things about Atlanta some of which were valid but most were not. The Atlanta Olympics had the most countries and most athletes of any at the time. The Atlanta Olympics pioneered the concept of the “Olympic Ring” where most venues were clustered together. Until that time, the venues were spread all over creating issues for people to get from one to another. Say what you will about the “Bubba Games” but the sponsorships and advertising kept the Games in the black without massive infusions of public money. I know public money was spent for some infrastructure upgrades but they mostly needed doing anyway. The Atlanta Games left a legacy of amateur sports in Atlanta/GA that exists to this day – check out the Ga Games. We are still hosting amateur athletic competitions in Olympic sports. That is something *no* other games has accomplished. Most of the venues from the Atlanta Games are still in use unless they were specifically designed to be temporary. Check out the stories on the Beijing Games and how so many of the venues are vacant or torn down.
JT
July 25th, 2012
12:56 pm
Whatever happened to Colin Campbell?
mic-man
July 25th, 2012
1:17 pm
Correct me if I’m wrong, but as I recall, Izzy all but disappeared once the 1996 games started. I remember Izzy being marketed before the games, even a cartoon show, but once the games started, he was gone. I don’t remember him on any of the TV coverage or very much at all around town including Centinneal Park.
JSM
July 25th, 2012
1:39 pm
Toinuhfish: You buy, i’ll fly! But ya, its about the mascot and how hung up some people are over something that no one outside Atlanta remembers. But i do love the stories of the people that were here and enjoyed it
GaPeach
July 25th, 2012
1:49 pm
@darren, it wasn’t our Olympic torch that looked like McDonald’s french fry box. It was our “Caldron.” But, I agree with you. That was and still is the uggliest caldron every built. It made Izzy look beautiful! We still have to see that ugly thing everytime we go to a Braves game.
N.Y.M.
July 25th, 2012
2:30 pm
I just remember the joke about the blue line painted down the streets where the marathoners ran. A few months after the games someone asked what that was.
“Where Izzy dragged his a$$ out of town!”
Kar
July 25th, 2012
2:34 pm
I preferred to think of the blue line as where Izzy marked his territory.
Jose Benzaca
July 25th, 2012
2:39 pm
I always thought the name of the mascot was “What it iz”
oneSTARman
July 25th, 2012
3:18 pm
Truly Hideous and Psychotic Looking
Let's Be Real
July 25th, 2012
3:34 pm
Wenlock and Mandeville are no uglier than the average British person.
At least the artists had the foresight not to include mouths with crooked teeth.
R U Kidding
July 25th, 2012
9:20 pm
Is it Wenlock or Mandeville that has the pee stain?
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Reverie
July 26th, 2012
1:35 pm
I was at the ‘88 Seoul Olympics and the ‘96 Atlanta Olympics. While Izzy was less appealing than Hodori, the experience in Atlanta was way, way, way better. Like a few people have said, who remembers the mascots?
Personally, I think that the press had it in their mind that there was simply nothing that could top the LA Olympics in the US and all they could do was compare the two. While Atlanta busted our collective humps to make it a success, the LA Olympics had greater corporate and government involvement, more existing infrastructure, and a town that could absorb more visitors without stretching their resources. Only Beijing has been able to match or exceed the government involvement. London is in a nation that lives and breathes by their sensationalist newspapers so they are about to experience what we in Atlanta called “the full Juan Antonio” when they will find the complaints numerous, exaggerated, misplaced, anonymous, and the praise half-hearted and insincere. I am sure that Londoners are going out of their way to support this, sacraficing for the greater good, yet the press will concentrate on the problems, not the successes and show only the disgruntled. As far as I’m concerned their mascots are fine. If they bother you, don’t buy anything with their image. They are cartoon characters and plush toys, not representative of the people or the location. Caring about them is as useful as caring that poor old Wiley Coyote never gets to eat the Road Runner. Beep Beep.
Reverie
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A.T.
July 27th, 2012
1:01 am
Coming from Virginia to visit Atlanta for the ‘96 Olympics was unforgettable. On this night 16 years ago, my folks and I went to see basketball between China and the home team USA. We went through Centennial Olympic Park and ended up getting split into 2 groups, but we still ended up safely back at the hotel. From where we left would become not so safe.
I was the last to wake up the next morning and noticed everyone else was watching the morning news. It felt uneasy to be split the night before, but I learned that others were truly unfortunate. I had been to places affected by terrorist acts, but those would come years after my visits.
On this day after the awful late-night attack, I saw flags lowered to half-mast. We went to see track, but rain fell hard before Gayle Devers’ ceremony could take place and we got out of there in a hurry. Couldn’t get a chance to hear the national anthem during this weekend stay at the Games.
Much is being said about the security for this year’s Olympics. The day right after London learned back in 2005 it would be the host, the city’s famed Underground was hit in a way the I.R.A. wished it would’ve been credited for.
I also want to say that it feels odd to hear that the Summer Games are in the very well-known city of London. I kind of felt that way when the ‘96 Games took place in Atlanta, a city only about 6 hours away that I had already visited many times.
To me, London is already the first international city that comes to my mind and in many people’s minds. It feels like we’re hearing about the past (hosted twice before). I’ve had the privilege of being an intern there, but I’m so used to the idea of the Olympics being in a new city about every time that still many people, especially us Americans, haven’t heard about.
I’ll try to enjoy these Games taking place in a city that “rings a bell.” (no pun intended, seriously)
I’m already counting down to Rio.
Spud
July 27th, 2012
1:10 am
I thought our mascot was originally called “Whatthehellizit!”
Bryn
July 27th, 2012
8:34 am
Everyone else might not, but I love Mandeville and Wenlock! You guys are all looking at the down side of this! Think Possitive about them for once. They are:
-Creative
-Unique
-cool
-robotic
So come on guys! Look on the bright side! And no offense to the Atlantians, but I don’t think Izzy is better than Wenlock and Mandeville.
ltown
July 28th, 2012
4:51 am
atlanta olympics–one of the worst organized in history, filled with gaffes, screwups, the bombing, … embarrassing
David
July 29th, 2012
12:43 pm
So excited for the olympic games. No better event in sports.
Mickey
July 29th, 2012
2:53 pm
Opening ceremonies were pretty cool. Tough to top Beijing, but the Chinese had a huge advantage in being able to contract inexpensive workers. London would have had to spend a fortune to put on the same show. Surprised they left out Elton John in their tribute to British musicians. Seemed to be intentional to me to leave him out. Wonder why…