Any prestigious event is bound to always have mascots. These mascots always intrigue me, because the creator of these mascots, usually come up with a story of who or what the mascot is, when it was born, hobbies, etc. For an event such as the World Cup, I’m sure these chosen mascots have gone through a series of “beauty contests” until it was crowned as The Official Mascot. I visited the Official 2006 FIFA World Cup website this morning, and here are some pics of Pille and Goleo:






GOLEO is a lion, whose dream is to make the World Cup in Germany so huge and memorable. He will be singing and dancing with fans all over the world and is even working hard on an album :D
Goleo’s constant companion, PILLE the talking football, is always at his side. Pille was born on 22 August 2003 at an adidas store. He was injected a magical gas that brought him to life. The two met at the UEFA European Championship match between England and Portugal, where Pille was the match ball, and was kicked over the crossbar by David Beckham, and flew into the hands of Goleo. They had been best friends ever since.

Isn’t it amusing how people could come up with stories like that? Anyway, you can read the full version of the story here. I think that it is necessary for organizers to create mascots, maybe not for the sole purpose of good luck, but just to make the event more memorable, and creates a cheerful and exciting atmosphere. Lately, mascots have always been figures that are kids-oriented, meaning that it is memorable to kids. They are most likely to be a cartoon animal, talking animal, cartoon boy or some futuristic creatures. Kids are the best customer. When a brand attracts kids, its bound to attract grown ups (well, at least their parents, or brothers and sisters). It’s a great marketing tool to sell products, merchandise and even the event itself. Not saying that kids are the World Cup’s main market segment, it’s just the fact that it creates a scalable market for the event.

The word “Mascot”, is derived from the word Mascotte (French) and Mascotto which meant spell or witch. There was then a French opera called “The Mascotte”, which was a success and translated into the English language as “The Mascot” , creating a word for a person, an animal or an object that brings good luck.