The blog of Michael Cabon

This is the first big success of the Beijing Olympic Games: The Fuwa. Usually the mascots of major international sporting events are conspicuous by their stupidity . We remember Footix during the football World Cup in France or the Magic , the mascot of the Winter Olympics in Albertville. In France it has no oil but sometimes we lack a few ideas too.

In the case of Beijing 2008, the Fuwa , the mascots understand, represent both an Olympic ring, and thus a continent by color, an element, take the traits of 'stylized animals , fish Beibei, Jingjing in Panda, Huanhuan in Olympic Flame, Yingying in Tibetan antelope, one who knows escape predators, and Nini a swallow while their names are a polite phrase: Beijing Huan Ying Ni (Welcome to Beijing)

Olympic marketing

In China, especially in Beijing, the mascot, unveiled in 2005, are subject to an all-out guerrilla marketing promotion techniques combining the most modern consumerist nationalist reflex. Thousands of different products are customized in the colors of Fuwa. And since they are five, it gives five times more to buy products for collectors, or five times more likely to find one to his taste. They have a formal network of stores across the country, a show on TV as a television series that shows the great moments of Olympic history and explains the rules of some sports. Some of these products exceed the ten thousand euros for limited editions made ​​of precious metals. In the shop in central Beijing, vendors continue to meet the demands of customers, mostly Chinese, and deliver T -shirts, lighters or other cups and stuffed animals. Marketing has no secret for the Beijing Olympic Committee. Playfair A study indicates that these revenues could exceed one billion euros, of which 300 million euros, just for sales-related mascots. perspectives that Board games, also anxious to overcome the financial, calling from his vows, according to economic experts Olympics. Even if in the end, the equation of the profitability of OJ is still a bit truncated and largely depends on the operation of infrastructure after the Olympics ended, which in Greece, according to the press, seems to be a real disaster.

And the mascot of the Paralympic Games in September:

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