CHEER SQUAD CHILDREN

During a casual peruse of the St George Illawarra Dragons website I stumbled upon a number of photos mainly of children.

Sounds disturbing, I know. I'm still attempting to decide if it is. The website proudly displays the dragons junior cheer squad. The Junior Flames. Aged between 7-12 years each player has their own, in uniform, profile picture displayed . Attached to each memebers photo is a short profile that outlines their favourite things, what they want to be when they grow up and why they joined the squad.

Holiday cheer squad camps are available and the children all look happy and healthy.

Grassroots is the catch phrase of a sustainable competition and unfortunately not every child can be the star player.So why is it that the website makes me cringe a little? Is it that I feel I'm watching an American teen movie or more that the profiles are a little too groomed with the marketing comb. How do you feel about primary schoolers with pom poms?

WORLD CUP SOUTH AFRICA YES IT'S A LION AGAIN!

South Africa is looking forward to the 2010 soccer world cup and in the attempt to get this into the limelight Zakumi the cup mascot has been unveiled. ZA apparently is for South Africa and kumi means ten in a number of African languages. Zakumi has green hair for pitch camoflage.

The Lion theme has been attended to previously. The first Lion being not only the first Lion but also the first mascot in England 1966 with World Cup Willie proudly sporting the union jack kit.

Recently though the Lion mascot hasn't bought the marketing highlights that may have been desired. The company responsible for Germany 2006 world cup mascot Goleo Lion (above) have filed for bankrupcy over less than expcted product demand.

At least South Africa has a legitimate claim to the animal as it actually naturally habitates the country.

What do you think is the Lion making you excited about South Africa 2010?

New Goald Coast Mascot more strange than cringe.

This month the Gold Coast Football club put their case to the AFL for entry into the 2008 season as the 17th team in the competition. Most importantly for this site we must take a look at the proposed team mascot. His name is Gary Clifford Irons. Fortunately it is not some fluffy animal personified into a football player. Nor is it a character that has been hijacked from an American basketball or football teams idea of a mascot. The inverted pyramid of a man resembles a lot of recent cartoon characters somewhere between Captain Hero from the Drawn Together animated television series and Mr Incredible. There seems to be an extreeme effort to make him seem very Australian and a really down to earth likeable kind of bloke. A lifesaver called
Garry who goes by the name Gazza. It becomes a little over the top in trying to tell us that yes he's Australian oh and a good bloke!
In his defence the marketing think tanks claim they were aiming at a younger demographic.
To be honest, due to reputation, I thought I'd cringe at anything the gc team produced but I'm a little more "creeped out" than anything else. It seemed to summon memories of AFLs last Gold Coast link. Maybe Mr Capper could make a better mascot? Just imagine the action figures?
What do you think are we a fan of the new gc mascot or would you prefer our suggestion below?