London's Amazingly Explicit Surveillance State Mascot For The 2012 Olympics Has A Huge Camera Eye That 'Records Everything' - Forbes ((tags: surveillance, propaganda, united kingdom)0

Olympic mascots are often controversial. Usually this is because they are weird blobby cartoon characters with goofy names that seem to have been dreamed up by creators who mainlined Mountain Dew Code Red while watching 24 straight hours of Pokemon. The official mascot for the 2012 Olympics, set in London, has that going for it but is also controversial for an entirely different reason. London, the premiere panoptic city was one of the first to blanket itself with CCTV cameras; its heavy security and surveillance cordon is nicknamed the Ring of Steel. London decided to make its surveillance yen a dominant feature of its otherwise goofy mascots. “Wenlock” and “Mandeville” both have a huge single eye made out of a camera lens so that they can “record everything.” Image at right is from theofficial London Olympics website.

In case that’s too subtle for you, the Olympic organizers have offered a dress-up version of Wenlock in a policeman outfit...

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/05/17/londons-amazingly-explicit-surveillance-state-mascot-for-the-2012-olympics-has-a-huge-camera-eye-that-records-everything/