In the past few days we have had the honour of witnessing two of the most exciting revelations since the strictly come dancing line-up was announced just over a week ago. I know what you are thinking, what could be so exciting that it could eclipse the announcement that Lisa Riley would be slipping into a sparkling, skimpy outfit in order to samba the night away? Well, hold your breath no more, for we now know the 2014 World Cup and Commonwealth Games mascots!
World Cup hosts Brazil have created a yet to be named armadillo mascot. The armadillo looks modern, cool, loveable. It wears the tradition colours of the Brazilian flag in yellow, green and blue. It even rolls up into a ball shape, a rather handy added extra for a mascot representing the world’s biggest football tournament. You can imagine children throughout the world idealising the armadillo the way their parents’ idealised the footballing star who helped unveil the mascot, Ronaldo.
The three-banded armadillo is an endangered creature native to Brazil bringing comments from FIFA Secretary General Jerome Valcke about how the world cup in 2014 will be an event used to “communicate the importance of the environment and ecology”. It brings meaning to an otherwise commercial tool, even if those words are carefully selected PR.
Come November we will know whether the mascot will be christened Amijubi, Fuleco or Zuzeco. Amijubi is meant to represent “friendliness and joy”, whereas Fuleco and Zuzeco provide a link to the “ecological message” that the tournament wants to represent.
Compare this to the Commonwealth Games mascot for Glasgow 2014 – Clyde the Thistle. 12-year-old Beth Gilmour’s design was selected out of 4,000 entries. It represents Scotland strongly, with both the Thistle and the name Clyde being iconic to both Glasgow and Scotland. The animated design looks bright and colourful yet it fails to really inspire.
But the real downfall of the mascot is the fact that in real life it looks like a man has been dressed up as a giant turnip, only to get the order of colours slightly wrong, dressed in jogging bottoms with felt arms that have been slipped on over a t-shirt with a pair of shorts that appear too tight. It just looks amateur.
Beth’s idea is a strong one yet the people implementing it have done such a poor job it does send warning signals about just how professional the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow is going to be.
With such high expectations after the London Olympics went so well, will Scotland be able to represent their country on a global scale in the manner that they desire. Given the look of the two mascots unveiled this week, both for major sporting events occurring in 2014, it is clear that Scotland may have a lot of work to do.
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