Waldi
Waldi is designed for the 1972 Munich Summer Olympic Games held mascot. The prototype was designed by the design Commissioner of games, Otl Aicher (1922-1991) designed and was the first official Olympic mascot.
Development
Willi Tom Thumb had the idea of a Dachshund to use as a mascot, since he was the owner of a dachshund. The result was " Olympic Waldi ". The choice fell on a dachshund, as these dogs possess toughness, flexibility and resilience. In addition, the dachshund was regarded as a typical pet Munich citizens. Aicher and his creative collaborators took on the task to give the mascot form and shape before it could come to wildwucherndem souvenir kitsch. The Aicher for established mandatory standards for colors, shapes and sizes should prevent any attempt to work Waldi to cheap trinkets. The then trademarked popular figure should also be another important mainstay for the financing of the Games. Modelled on an 84 -day-old female named " Cherie Birkenhof ".
The colors of the mascot addressed to the format specified by Aicher for the games color scheme that drew on the HKS color.
- HKS 4
- HKS 6
- HKS 45
- HKS 50
- HKS 64
- HKS 67
Sale
After the first official presentation of sympathy carrier to the January 4, 1971 16 toy manufacturers licenses were given to production. From the license trade with the mascot, the Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games and the Mitbeteiligte German Sports Aid Foundation hoped particularly high profits. It therefore two agencies were tasked with licensing: the Atlas Publishing and Advertising from Munich and the Cremota advertising and sales promotion agency in Frankfurt. Waldi was marketed extensively ultimately all advertising strategy rules, campaigned for some well-known products and could be bought on paper bags, as stickers, posters, buttons, wood, fabric, terry and plush, as Knautschtier, pillows and puzzle. Even as a figure with bobbing tail -behind pulling the mascot in game stores, departments and official Olympic stalls had to have. Other variants of sympathy bearer could be purchased as a lollipop, piggy bank and balloon. Even before the games Waldi had rinsed several million DM in the coffers of the organizing committee worldwide. As most expensive option at the time a piece of pure gold was traded with necklace.
After the games, but put a disillusionment, as had not set the desired success in the marketing of Waldi despite all efforts. The total value of unsold official Olympic souvenirs - at that time, these included only the protected products with the Olympic spiral and the mascot - was 50 million marks, the licensee had also invested $ 10,000 for a license. The Federation of Travel Souvenir industry turned this " catastrophic sales result " the free-form Olympic souvenirs opposite to that in which the characters were legally protected and products were not been used. Of these unofficial souvenirs about ten times more had been sold. In addition, only two have become best-sellers of the 13 offered versions of the Olympic Waldis.
Reflection
After the soccer World Cup in 1974 - the next major sporting event in the Federal Republic - the mascot used there Tip and Tap from the formative industry were repeatedly compared with the commercially largely unsuccessful Waldi. Here, leading designers agreed that Tip and Tap no longer meant with its landscaped environment despite increased sales in Germany in a suspected creative relapse " of a selected abomination ". The held out of the World Cup organizer, Toto and Lotto director Saarbrücken Hermann Neuberger (1919-1992): " The selling three times better than the Olympia Dachshund Waldi.