Before creating Cobi, Mariscal had first attempted a shrimp mascot that "looked stupid on a bicycle" and a sheep dog mascot that looked too much like an ape, according to the Associated Press.[2] He settled on a Catalan Sheepdog in honor of the host city of Barcelona, located in Catalonia, and chose to depict the dog with a Cubist style as a nod to Barcelonan Pablo Picasso, specifically his interpretations of Las Meninas.[2] Cobi was unveiled to the public in 1987, and his name was derived from the Barcelona Olympic Organising Committee (COOB).[2] Cobi was initially criticized by Catalan people, who did not consider Mariscal to be as worthy of representing them as deceased Catalan artists such as Picasso, Joan Miró, and Gaudi.[3] Eventually the Catalan people embraced Cobi, as did many Spaniards and Olympics viewers.
Mariscal explained, "Cobi is the first Olympic mascot to be sad, to be crying, to be depressed."[4] He has a Mona Lisa smile, opposable thumb in some renderings, a nose is on the side of his head,[5] and "a sly grin" according to Mariscal. "He can be a bad, a poor little boy, a druggie, a guy who is cleaning your car windows, an athlete, an idealist carrying the Olympic flag, or a disillusioned youth."[2] Mariscal designed the character to have a personality that differs from the intense competitive spirit of the Olympics, saying "The best thing about Cobi is that he has the desire to live life. Cobi is the more relaxed part of the Olympics."
Mariscal, age 42 at the time, had started his cartoonist career in repressive Francoist Spain before Franco's death in 1975, and risen to prominence as one of Spain's most celebrated design figures at that time. He was characterized as a "social critic and first-class cynic".[2]
Cobi's likeness was all over Barcelona, on billboards for products like Coca-Cola, Ray-Ban, and Brother typewriters, and on T-shirts, mugs, and even bottles of bath gel.[2] A set of large statues in the city showed Cobi playing each of the 28 Olympic sporting events, and stores sold stuffedtoys of Cobi for children.[2]Gannett News Service reported: "Cobi’s picture is all over this city. On billboards, busses, flags. On food wrappers, Coke cans, baseball caps. He is inescapable as death, taxes, and horn-honking cabbies."[5] The character's licensing contributed 3.59% of the cost of the Olympic Games.[3]
After the popularity reached by Cobi, the organising committee requested that Mariscal create other characters to accompany Cobi on his adventures around the world. They appeared as supporting characters in books, stationery and figurines along other licensed products. For this to happen, he took out of the archives some original ideas that had been archived during the period when he was developing Cobi. He considered the "Palmerito", a Mediterranean palm that had created life, as well as an anthropomorphized lobster with a big smile. However, he realized that his first design proposal would fit much better at the Paralympic Games.
In order to fit the demands of the organizers, the creative style Mariscal used with Cobi would have had to be kept. Petra was originally one of Cobi's first drafts that had been saved for later use. As he redesigned her, the lines between the two became clearer; Petra became stronger and more humanized. She was also taller than Cobi, and was not given arms, which both shocked and sensitized at first glance. In addition, all characters were required to have Spanish names. Given the name Petra, she quickly captivated the organizing committee and was already considered the unofficial mascot of the Paralympic Games.
Unlike Cobi who was short, shy, fearful and uncoordinated, Petra was tall, slender, brave, chatty and friendly. Her personality was like a ray of light, and she never gave up on anything until the possibilities run out. This sometimes made the other characters uncomfortable in the stories. Her personality is based on plastic artist Lorenza Böttner, a friend of Mariscal's who had lost her arms in an electrical accident as a child. Böttner became famous in Barcelona because of her style of "danced painting", painting using her legs, feet, mouth and body while dancing. Böttner, a transgender woman, enchanted everyone around her because she did not let her disability hold her back from making art. Despite being HIV-positive, she aimed to lead a completely normal life. Mariscal imagined Petra in that vein, an armless girl that is supposed to convey positivity, extroversion, independence, energy and bravery.[6]
Before and during the Games, Cobi and Petra were shown in a variety of advertisements for Olympic and Paralympic sponsors, such as Coca-Cola, Brother Industries and Danone. They even had their own television series, The Cobi Troupe, which was sold to over 24 broadcasters worldwide, with Israeli broadcaster Arutz HaYeladim also making a series of live-action shorts called קובי כבל מייקר (Cobi Cable Maker), featuring Cobi competing in various sports.[7] They also appeared on an extensive range of souvenirs, dubbed Cobiana, which proved to be a lucrative source of income. During the Games, inflatable versions of Cobi and Petra were tethered to the Barcelona waterfront.
The Barcelona Olympic Organizing Committee and BRB Internacional produced an animated television series starring Cobi and Petra to promote the Games, titled The Cobi Troupe. The series was created under the creative and artistic direction of Mariscal, with a screenplay by Tricicle.[8] A series of six comic albums were also released alongside the television series.[9]
Legacy
The Spanish fashion brand Tendam released a set of pajamas featuring Cobi during the 2024 Summer Olympics.
Barcelona has a Cobi fountain that was inaugurated on July 11, 1992, two weeks before the start of the Games.[10] It was created by Mariscal, and he was not ultimately able to do his original idea of a sculpture that moves to different parts of the pool when spectators insert coins.
"Cobi the pooch: not your average Olympic mascot", Anchorage Daily News, quoted in Robert E Rinehart (1998), Players All: Performances in Contemporary Sport, Indiana University, p137, ISBN0-253-21223-5
Donald McNeill (1999), Urban Change and the European Left, Routledge (UK), p47-8, ISBN0-415-17062-1
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