"Of course, the Olympics has a long history of bizarre and un-loveable mascots."
You gotta feel for the designer of the London Olympics mascots, who took to Slate recently to pen an impassioned defense of his creatures. But that right there should tell you something. If you find yourself having to explain why your creature design is NOT creepy, you have already lost.
Wenlock and Mandeville are the large, white, Gumby-like mascots of the 2012 Olympics. They are the work of designer Grant Hunter of Iris Worldwide, who refers to people who think the mascots are creepy as "naysayers."
Frankly, I'm surprised that the designer is surprised. How can you create a creature that has one giant eye in place of a head, and not expect people to find it off-putting? The designer's explanation was weak at best, and references the omnipresent use of video cameras to bring the Olympics to the world. Which is precisely the point of the creatures' detractors: they look like walking cameras.
George Orwell's 1984 was set in London, of course. And the CCTV network that has spread across Britain is certainly unsettling to contemplate. Not to mention that it's like "you watch the Olympics, but the Olympics watch you back."
Wenlock and Mandeville's designer not only doesn't refute this take on their design, he embraces it. "Yes, cameras are everywhere […] But since when has that become a negative?"
As for whether or not the mascots are symbols of the Illuminati, although there are numerous intricately detailed, point-by-point explanations online, I have my doubts. For one thing, if the Illuminati are secretly running the world, why would they want to embody themselves in the high-profile Olympic mascots?
(That's something I have never understood about many of the Illuminati conspiracies. Why would an organization which thrives on secrecy keep tipping its hat by prominently placing symbols of itself in the public's eye?)
Of course, the Olympics has a long history of bizarre and un-loveable mascots. Who can forget Izzy, the mascot of the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta? Izzy was a blue… like… THING. Wikipedia describes it as "an abstract shape." It was a blue creature with two large eyeballs, two hands, and two feet in big white cartoon shoes.
Sure, it looks like Mandeville peed his pants with that blue fluid they use for sanitary pad commercials. Sure, they are supposedly drops of steel. (It's true!) Sure, "one columnist theorized that the pair were the product of a drunken one-night stand between a Teletubby and a Dalek." But when you get right down to it, these two are harmless. I mean, they PROBABLY aren't designed to usher in a New World Order of total surveillance.
Probably.