by Chris Bodenner
Last week we spotlighted London and Beijing. A reader adds:
If you are going to examine bad mascots, please don't forget Whatizit/Izzy from Atlanta in 1996. It was a horrible blue sperm with stars shooting out his ass. It was the disastrous result of too many marketing people throwing everything into the pot. We still are living down the shame of Izzy.
The 2004 Games were not much better – and oddly phallic:
The Athens Olympic Mascots, Athena and Phevos, with their wide feet, long necks and tiny heads, one in orange and the other in deep blue, are based on dolls, thousands of years old, found at archaeological sites in Greece. Greek mythology had it that Phevos and Athena are brother and sister, named after two Greek gods: Phevos, the god of light and music, and Athena, goddess of wisdom and patron of the city of Athens.
The remaining mascots, stretching back to 1972, are actually pretty normal.
