Footix
I believe this article to be the only published in depth analysis
of the official mascot of the 1998 football World Cup, Footix,
who is seen as a post modern mascot connecting with myths from
France's past while being very much a product of its commercial
present. Drawing on a wide variety of press, textual and Internet
sources, this piece links football with emblem studies and
questions of French national identity.
Extract
In this, the early summer of 1998, the eyes of the world have again turned to France as, for the first time in sixty years, the final stages of soccer's World Cup are being held on French soil. France 98 is obviously a huge operation organizationally and administratively with thirty-two nations' football teams playing sixty-four matches in ten stadia in nine French cities in the space of little more than a month, but the tournament has also had a vast promotional side, too: in addition to a copyright-protected logo (a football rising like the sun over the world), a slogan (C'est beau un monde qui joue), and a series of advertising posters, the organizers of the tournament, the Comité français d'organisation (CFO), have also commissioned the design and creation of an official mascot called Footix. How, then, was this key figure of the world's biggest sporting event to date created? What manifestations has he taken? Most importantly of all, what are the historical resonances and myths of French nationhood recycled by this undeniably modern mascot?
In form, Footix bears witness to the importance and influence of the bande dessinée in French culture, as he is a somewhat simplistic cartoon cockerel drawn entirely in primary colours with exaggerated anthropomorphic features (...)
© Alpha Academic 1998
La
victoire est en nous