Olympic Mascots
Readings in Module 1 warned us of the possible negative effects that the Internet might have relating to the commoditization and commercial exploitation of indigenous artifacts, values, and imagery. I did some searches on the “indigenous commoditization” and found an interesting article about the Vancouver Winter Olympics, and our attempts to promote “Canadian” culture and soften history.
The author (Adam Gaudry) questions our own human rights record in relation to how certain land acquisitions for the venues took place and then writes of the exploitation and commercialization of mascots and softening of folklore related to them in order “westernize” historical events.
It seems the Olympics are a good example of how organizations can trade mark and restrict the use of imagery, slogans and even words. Didn’t Donald Trump even try to trade mark the phrase “your fired”?