REAL 2010

With less than two months to go until the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics are underway the organizers of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games are preparing for the counterfeiters to unleash their furry on this next event.

In anticipation of that furry they've launched a campaign called REAL 2010 encouraging fans, spectators, companies, etc. to quite simply buy real, genuine products.

In addition to this, VANOC held a three-day anti-counterfeiting training conference in Vancouver which was attended by businesses and law enforcement officers from Canada and the U.S..

The conference was run by Kestenberg Siegal Lipkus, a Toronto law firm, and co-sponsored by the Vancouver Police Department and the RCMP.

Vancouver Mascots Shown by US Firm

Despite Sumi, Quatchi, and Miga being the brainchildren of local, Canadian designers the short animated film to introduce them to the world was created by a US Firm.

The film in question was released in November and created by Buck a company with offices in New York and Los Angeles. It's not surprising that VANOC would want to have the best product possible created to show-off the 2010 mascots but the fact remains that Vancouver is home to many strong illustration firms that could conceivably created a product as good or better than the US firm.

VANOC claims that Buck offered the most compelling pitch. The group of companies that pitched the video included Canadian corporations but at the end of the day being Canadian alone does not guarantee a firm a VANOC contract although it certainly does give one an edge.

More from the Vancouver Sun.