Proof That There’s No Greek Cartoon God Proof That There’s No Greek Cartoon God

Phevos and AthenaLast night, during one of Lewis Black’s rants on THE DAILY SHOW, he did a great bit on the two deformed lumps that are serving as the mascots for the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. The characters – Phevos and Athena – are inspired by a 2,700-year-old Greek terracotta doll, but as Black put it, they look more like dicks in sweaters. What’s especially humorous is that it took two committees of painters and gallery heads to pick this design from 196 submissions. As the UK’s GUARDIAN reasoned, “Perhaps they were all having an off day.” The designer of these two blobs, Spyros Gogos, who is not surprisingly an ad agency creative director, says that he wanted the design to evoke, “The brotherhood of man, equality of the sexes and participation irrespective of victory.” Here’s a LINK to an animated commercial featuring these characters, an ARTICLE about how people don’t find these characters very appealing, and an amusing EDITORIAL by the GUARDIAN. Of course, this is hardly the first time an Olympic mascot has looked so silly (remember Atlanta’s Izzy?).

Amid Amidi

Amid Amidi is Cartoon Brew's Publisher and Editor-at-large.

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