A few years ago, there was a competition announced in Russia to create the mascot for the Sochi Winter Olympics. One design gained traction as an early favorite: a furry, drugged-out homage to Futurama's hypnotoad named Zoich.
The mascot featured blue fur, bulging eyes with Olympic rings as pupils, an Imperial crown on it's head, and a ski pole in its mouth. Because the contest lived online, the Internet quickly latched on to the joke candidate and made it the top contender. The powers that be eliminated Zoich and other unworthy entries when choosing finalists, but the people kept the frog alive as a symbol of protest.
As The Wire reports, it was later revealed that the creator of Zoich, a Russian artist named Yegor Zhgun, was commissioned back in 2010 by the Russian Olympic Committee to create the subversive mascot as a way to outshine the other legit protest entries. The ringer mascot was almost like Sidney Deane and Billy Hoyle scamming other basketball players in White Men Can't Jump (if you don't get that reference, shame on you).
All of the people who used the mascot as their symbol of protest obviously felt duped, and Vladimir Putin's favorite entry, a leopard, won the competition. Was it a dirty trick to stack the cards against the opposition? Maybe. Was it brilliant? Definitely.
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[via TheWire]
