Vinicius and Tom

Creation and development Tenders to create the mascots of the 2016 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, were requested in November 2012. The tender process involved design, illustration, animation, and advertising firms exclusively from Brazil, in order to ensure a "Brazilian-flavoured design". Directors from the Brazilian film festival Anima Mundi served as consultants in the process. Naming and unveiling On 22 November 2014, in preparation for the unveiling, the Rio 2016 organizers held a press event in which costumes of the mascots of past Olympic and Paralympic Games visited Rio de Janeiro to meet the new mascots of the Rio 2016 Games. The mascots were revealed to the public on 23 November 2014, the names to be determined by an online public vote. On 24 November 2014, the mascots appeared publicly in costumes for the first time at the Ginásio Experimental Olímpico Juan Antonio Samaranch, a school in Rio motivated by the 2016 Summer Olympics and established for talented young athletes. After a three-week voting period, the names "Vinicius and Tom" won over "Oba and Eba" and "Tiba Tuque and Esquindim" on 14 December 2014, tallying 44 percent of 323,327 votes. Use of Vinicius in Olympic wrestling events picks up a plush doll of Vinicius, thrown by coaches into the ring at Rio 2016 to challenge referee calls. In wrestling, coaches may challenge a referee's call by throwing a predetermined "soft object" into the ring. Although this is normally a foam brick, wrestling rules do not specify what the soft object must be. During the 2016 Olympic wrestling events, the organizers provided coaches with soft plush dolls of Vinicius to throw into the ring when they wished to challenge a call. One wrestler's coach received a Vinicius doll with a red shirt, while the opponent's coach received one with a blue shirt. Dustin Nelson, a news writer for the website Thrillist, wrote that the mascot took "a little of the anger out of a challenge." Jason Bryant, the in-house commentator for wrestling at the 2016 Olympics, was slightly surprised to see the practice at the Olympics, given the emphasis there on "protocol", but he eventually commented that it does not matter what the challenge object is, particularly if it has cultural significance to the location of the competition. Coach Mike Malinconico argued that the practice does not belong at the Olympic Games, stating, "The fate of one of my athletes who has been training for this specific moment for four years hangs in the balance of a referee's error. And I have a stuffed animal in my hands." == Characteristics ==

Vinicius, named after Brazilian lyricist Vinicius de Moraes, is the Olympic mascot. The character can stretch his arms and legs "as long as he wants." Tom, named after Brazilian musician Tom Jobim, is the Paralympic mascot. Tom's design represents the plants of Brazilian forests. Any object can be pulled out of the leaves on Tom's head. Brand director Beth Lula stated that the mascots are intended to reflect the diversity of Brazil's culture and people. The mascots' namesakes, Vinicius de Moraes and Tom Jobim, co-wrote the 1962 bossa nova song "The Girl from Ipanema". == Media ==

Animated shorts A series of animated adventure shorts called Vinicius e Tom – Divertidos por Natureza ("Vinicius and Tom – Fun by Nature" The shorts are also available to view on the official website as well as on YouTube, as uploaded by the Organizing Committee's YouTube channel. The series consists of 32 two-minute episodes and is the third television cartoon series based on Olympic mascots and the first such cartoon created in the Americas. The show follows Vinicius and Tom as they live in Brazilian forests and cities. The series is designed to promote the mascots. Turner Broadcasting System, the owner of Cartoon Network, invested US$750,000 in the series. Cartoon Network helped to coproduce the series, having won an open competition held by the Rio 2016 organizers to select a collaborator for the series. Brand director Beth Lula stated that the mascots "are one of the principal methods of engaging the public with the Games. The cartoon will give them life, reinforcing the emotional link of the public with the event." During the Paralympic events, medalists received stuffed toys of Tom, with the leaves on the dolls' heads colored in gold, silver, or bronze to correspond with their medals. The Lego kit featuring Vinicius and Tom is the first time Lego made a commercial version of the official mascots of the Games. An employee at a Rio 2016 merchandise store commented that the mascots were "the most popular thing by far. ... Kids and adults all love them, especially Vinicius, he is the favourite." == Reception ==

in Barra da Tijuca, photographed in August 2015|right|220x220px Julia Glum, in an article in the International Business Times, wrote that the "mascot for the Olympic Games is almost always strange-looking, and Rio de Janeiro is no exception. ... though they're by far not the craziest Olympic animals to ever exist ..." In an article published by Mic, Brianna Provenzano referred to the mascots as "lovable", describing their appearance as "sweet and simple" and highlighting their symbolisms for the animals and plants of Brazil. However, Charlotte Wilder, a writer on USA Todays sports column For The Win, was unimpressed by Vinicius's design, stating, "Whoever was in charge of coming up with this creature of the huge hands and feet did exactly what it looks like, which is mash up a bunch of animals, video game characters, and cartoons, stuff it with some synthetic filling, and call it day." Robert John Young, Professor of Wildlife Conservation at the University of Salford, criticized Rio 2016 for failing to capitalize on environmental protection by "inventing" mascots, rather than using actual animal species. Young also criticized the organizers for not offering a female name in the public vote. On the other hand, Carlos Merigo wrote on Brazilian website B9 that the mascots bring back "the colorful, loving and fun atmosphere that marked the Olympic mascots over the decades", calling them a "return to origins" following the "shapelessness" of Wenlock and Mandeville, the mascots of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. Neha Prakash, writing on digital media website Mashable, wrote that, compared to the "terror" of the mascots of the 2014 Winter Olympics, Vinicius and Tom "are more nostalgia-inducing than nightmarish". In an entry about 2000 Summer Olympics' unofficial mascot Fatso the Wombat on Slate's culture blog Brow Beat, Matthew Dessem wrote that there were no glaring issues with the mascots when compared to previous Olympic mascots: "Like the best Olympic mascots of yore, Vinicius and Tom are well-suited to plush toys and licensing deals and will be completely forgotten within a year." Leila Cobo, in an article published by Billboard, praised the organizers of Rio 2016 for "celebrating music in a most joyful and profound way" by naming the Olympic mascot after Vinicius de Moraes. ==References==