Vinicius and Tom

**Vinicius** is the mascot of the 2016 Summer Olympics, and **Tom** is the mascot of the 2016 Summer Paralympics. The mascots represent Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Vinicius represents Brazilian animals, and his body has parts of cats, monkeys, and birds. Tom represents Brazilian plant life.

A Brazilian company called Birdo made the mascots. The Olympic organizers only wanted mascots made by Brazilian companies. The organizers chose Birdo's mascots in August 2013, and they showed them to the public on 23 November 2014, but the mascots did not have names yet at that time. The organizers asked the public to choose names for them. The public chose to name the mascots after Vinicius de Moraes and Tom Jobim. Vinicius de Moraes and Tom Jobim wrote the song "The Girl from Ipanema".

The Olympic organizers made a children's television series about the mascots. The Rio organizers also made many toys and other merchandise of the mascots. The organizers gave wrestling coaches soft dolls of Vinicius. If the coaches did not like a referee's call, then they would throw the doll into the ring. Many people thought that this was funny. Paralympic medalists got special dolls of Tom. They were special because the leaves on Tom's head were the same color as their medals. Some observers liked how the mascots looked. Others thought they looked strange. The events were going to be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, so the Olympic organizers only wanted designs from Brazilian companies. Directors from the Brazilian film festival Anima Mundi helped the Rio 2016 organizers choose the mascots.

### Naming and unveiling 
The organizers showed the public the mascots on 23 November 2014, but they had not yet decided what to name them. On 24 November 2014, the mascots appeared publicly in costumes for the first time at the Ginásio Experimental Olímpico Juan Antonio Samaranch, a school for talented young athletes in Rio. The organizers let the public pick the names of the mascots in an online vote.

The voting ended after three weeks on 14 December 2014. "Vinicius and Tom" won with 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 the sport of wrestling, coaches may challenge a referee's call by throwing a "soft object" into the ring. This is normally a foam brick, but wrestling rules do not exactly say what the soft object must be. The Rio 2016 organizers gave wrestling coaches soft plush dolls of Vinicius to throw into the ring when they wished to challenge a call. One wrestler's coach got a Vinicius doll with a red shirt, while the opponent's coach got 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". Vinicius can stretch his arms and legs as long as he wants.

Tom is the Paralympic mascot, and is he named after Brazilian musician Tom Jobim. Tom's design represents the plants of Brazilian forests. Tom can pull any object out of his head. His mission is "to inspire everybody to use creativity and determination to always reach further and have fun." The mascots are named after Vinicius de Moraes and Tom Jobim, who co-wrote the 1962 bossa nova song "The Girl from Ipanema".

## Media 
### Animated shorts 
On 5 August 2015, Cartoon Network Brazil started to broadcast animated short films with the mascots. The series is named *Vinicius e Tom – Divertidos por Natureza* ("Vinicius and Tom – Fun by Nature" The series has 32 episodes. Each episode is two minutes long. *Divertidos por Natureza* is the third television cartoon series based on Olympic mascots. It is also the first cartoon created in the Americas based on Olympic mascots. 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, spent US$750,000 to develop the series. Cartoon Network helped to coproduce the series because it won a competition held by the Rio 2016 organizers to select a collaborator for the series. Brand director Beth Lula said 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." The organizers gave Paralympic medalists stuffed toys of Tom. They colored the leaves on the dolls' heads in gold, silver, or bronze in order to match with their medals. The Vinicius and Tom Lego kit is the first time that Lego made a commercial version of Olympic mascots. An employee at a Rio 2016 merchandise store said 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 wrote about Vinicius and Tom in an article in the *International Business Times.* She said 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 called the mascots "lovable". She described their appearance as "sweet and simple", and she highlighted their symbolisms for the animals and plants of Brazil. On the other hand, Charlotte Wilder wrote an article in *USA Today*s sports column *For The Win.* She said that she was unimpressed by Vinicius's design: "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, thought that Rio 2016 should have given more attention to environmental protection by using actual animal species instead of inventing their own animal. Young also thought that the organizers should have included a female name in the public vote.]]
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". Merigo called them a "return to origins" following the "shapelessness" of Wenlock and Mandeville, the mascots of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. Neha Prakash wrote an article on digital media website *Mashable*. Prakash said that Vinicius and Tom "are more nostalgia-inducing than nightmarish" compared to the "terror" of the mascots of the 2014 Winter Olympics. Stephen Wood wrote an article on the history of Olympic mascots in *Paste*, and he compared them to the style of *Adventure Time*, an American animated television series. In an article published on *Slate*'s culture blog *Brow Beat*, Matthew Dessem wrote that there were no big problems 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 wrote an article published by *Billboard*, and she 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
## Other websites
* Official website (archived)
*  – the animated shorts, published on the official YouTube channel of Rio 2016
* Birdo Studio – official website of the studio that created the mascots