Fuleco – Official Mascot for World Cup Football 2014
As it has now transpired, Fuleco has emerged to be one of the most popular World Cup Football mascots of all time. Needless to say, its popularity should only exponentiate over the course of the cup.
A mascot, regarded as the official identity of a tournament or event, is traditionally believed to bring luck as well as represent a group with a common public identity. Right from 1966 when the World Cup Football had its first mascot, these have become a sign of branding and marketing, hence claiming a very strategically important position in the hosting of a tournament.
For the 2014 edition of the World Cup Football, on 25 November 2012 the organizing committee officially launched Fuleco, the Armadillo as the mascot.
Armadillo is a species of mammals which has an “Armour” like back and hence the name Armadillo. What the mascot of the 2014 World Cup depicts is a Brazilian three-banded armadillo, which happens to be a species endemic to Brazil. And this species is listed in the Red book as an endangered species.
Armadillo being an endangered species serves a very important purpose of it being selected as the mascot. In January 2012 the Caatinga Association, a Brazilian environmental NGO launched a nationwide campaign proposing the animal to become the mascot for the premier tournament.
One of the important aims of the 2014 edition of the tournament is to raise awareness about the environment and ecology. And Fuleco suited the theme perfectly. In fact, the name has a deep connection with the theme. It is a combination of the Portuguese words for football (futebol) and ecology (ecologia) and it turned out that more than 48 percent of the 1.7 million Brazilians voted in favor of it in a poll. The other two names in the contention were Zuzeco and Amijub.
Fuleco was chosen after the World Cup Football administrative body and the Local Organizing Committee analyzed 47 different proposals created by six different Brazilian agencies. The designs were further analyzed through extensive research carried out amongst its primary target audience, Brazilian children between the ages of five and twelve.
Reference: Wikipedia.com
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