当地时间5月19日晚，伦敦奥组委公布了2012年伦敦奥运会和残奥会的吉祥物，奥运会的吉祥物的名字为文洛克，而残奥会的吉祥物名为曼德维尔。两个吉祥物均为只有一只眼睛的金属机器人，主色调为金属色，极具运动性。这两个独眼卡通形象的吉祥物一经推出，除了赚足人们的眼球之外，也引来了不少英国人的口诛笔伐。

mascot¹ Wenlock, left, and the Paralympic mascot Mandeville strike an Usain Bolt pose." width="460" height="288" src="/upimg/100522/4_015822_1.jpg" />
Bolt from the blue: the Olympic mascot Wenlock, left, and the Paralympic mascot Mandeville strike an Usain Bolt pose.

The organizers of London 2012 were plunged² into a fresh row after the new Olympic mascots³（吉祥物） were branded “patronizing（要人领情的，屈尊俯就的） rubbish” by design experts.

The two metallic⁴（金属的） characters, named Wenlock and Mandeville, were unveiled on Wednesday night after a rigorous 18-month design process involving 40 focus groups.

Apparently⁵ hewn（粗削的） from the “last drops of steel” left over from constructing the final support girder（大梁，纵梁） of the Olympic Stadium, the one-eyed creatures are intended to help young people relate to the Games.

But branding experts last night called them “a calamity⁶（不幸事件，灾难） ” and accused Olympic bosses of wasting thousands of pounds on their creation.

Stephen Bayley, the prominent design critic, said: “What is it about these Games which seems to drive the organizers into the embrace of this kind of patronizing, cretinous（白痴病的） infantilism（幼稚症） ? Why can’t we have something that makes us sing with pride, instead of these appalling⁷ computerized Smurfs for the iPhone generation?

“If the Games are going to be remembered by their art then we can declare them a calamitous⁸ failure already.”

Lord Coe, chairman of the London Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games, defended the mascots, saying they would inspire young people to engage with sport.

“We’ve created our mascots for children. By linking young people to the values of sport, Wenlock and Mandeville will help inspire kids to strive to be the best they can be,” he said.

But critics said the design would leave young people baffled（阻碍，迷惑） . Aaron Shields, a partner at the design agency BrandInstict, said: “I don’t think people are going to relate to these very modern creations. The first rule of mascot creation is to make something familiar and accessible, not something alien. This is just going to be seen as another disappointment coming out of the Olympic Games.”

The two characters are named after the village of Much Wenlock in Shropshire – which hosted a precursor⁹ to the modern Olympic Games in the 19th Century – and Stoke Mandeville hospital in Buckinghamshire, the birthplace of the Paralympic Games,

In homage¹⁰（尊敬，敬意） to London's taxis, each has a yellow light on top of its head, with an initial in the middle.

Organizers would not comment on the cost of creating the mascots, which were designed by the London-based creative agency Iris¹¹, but claimed it had been kept to “a few thousand pounds” because large parts of the work were done in house or with the help of sponsors.

The controversy¹² follows a similar row over the 2012 logo, which was unveiled in 2007 after organizers spent £400,000 on its design.

Mr Stephen Bayley condemned¹³ the logo at the time as "a puerile¹⁴（孩子气的，幼稚的） mess, an artistic¹⁵ flop¹⁶（砰然落下，失败） and a commercial scandal".