Marketing Week reports that the London 2012 organizing committee is considering a public competition to design a mascot for the 2012 Summer Games because of the negative publicity surrounding the design of the London 2012 logo.
A London 2012 spokeswoman said, “a competition of some kind is an option” but a decision had not yet been made. She said London 2012 will look at plans for the mascot over the next year.
When the 2012 logo was launched last year there was a public and media backlash. The cost of the design at 400,000 pounds also caused outrage, reports Marketing Week.
Meanwhile Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell told an audience Wednesday at the CBI Business Summit that when London Mayor Boris Johnson is handed the Olympic torch at the Beijing Summer Games, levels of scrutiny towards the 2012 Games will shoot up, and she figures the media will do nothing to help.
Jowell said, “the media whacks the Olympics every day, and a large proportion of that is totally uninformed and wrong. But you have to live with that”.
But she added that public support remains high. “I think it’s because of the ambition parents have for their children and the ambitions young people have for themselves”.
She said, “the 2012 Games will be a huge challenge but the scale of ambition in this country is unprecedented. Just remember – no one thought we should bid for the Olympics. No one thought we would win. But we did”.
