Snowman (mascot)
Snowman was the official mascot of the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria . It was the first official mascot at the Winter Olympics.
description
The mascot represented a snowman , consisting of a large snowball with arms and legs, which was provided with black eyes, a carrot as a nose and a red Tyrolean hat . The figure was designed by Walter Pötsch. Snowman stood for the motto games of simplicity . It also acted as a good luck charm, as the organizers hoped that they would not have to struggle with an extreme lack of snow 12 years earlier , as they did at the Olympic Winter Games in Innsbruck. Finally, at the 1976 Games, there was sufficient snowfall.
Snowman provoked divided reactions from the population, the appearance of the mascot was often very well received, but also called critics on the scene. For example, the Süddeutsche Zeitung ruled that snowmen had “bizarre club feet”. The mascot was used for various merchandising items and became a financial success.
Others
A PEZ dispenser with the figure of the snowman was exclusively released for the 1976 Winter Olympics . Today this model is one of the rare pieces among the PEZ figures and, depending on its condition, is traded at high prices among collectors.
Web links
- Innsbruck 1976 Mascot: Snowman on the official website of the International Olympic Committee
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Olympic mascot: Freak show of mythical creatures. Spiegel Online, August 5, 2008, accessed August 29, 2016 .
- ↑ Chronicle of the XII. 1976 Winter Olympics. Retrieved August 29, 2016 .
- ↑ Organizing Committee of the XII. Olympic Winter Games Innsbruck (Ed.): Innbruck '76 - final report . Innsbruck 1976, p. 188 ( Online (PDF; 31.8 MB) ).
- ^ Shawn Peterson: PEZ: From Austrian Invention to American Icon . The History Press, Charleston, SC 2016, ISBN 978-1-4396-5778-2 , pp. 91 ( limited preview in Google Book search).