Meet Police Community Support Officer (PCSO) named Steve. He is a mascot created by the Metropolitan Police based on a real Sutton, Surrey police officer named Stephen King (not the writer). His main responsibilities are visiting public events and primary schools in London.

Steve’s blond hair and blue eyes are quite adorable and he has been a big hit in many events. But now he is under fire because he’s too white and male. A certain police sergeant says he failed to represent the true community and might offend those women and Asian officers.

To arrest this concern, the Metropolitan Police will spend £15,000 to create 3 new characters and it will be ready early next year. One character is a female PCSO named Sunita, together with a woman and a man police constable.

On the other hand, there are also some officers who feel that spending thousands for new mascot designs is very ridiculous.

“One of the things that is damaging our job and our relations with the community is this constant overbearing political correctness. We seem to be taking the issue to the extreme, and pandering to every whim and gripe. We need to take a sensible approach to this and stop over-reacting,” said officer Geoff Parker in Islington, in a news article.

A mascot can be a very powerful marketing tool to improve your image. Just like your brand name or logo design, you should also seek the opinion of your community and customers to gauge their reaction.

Via Surrey Comet

This entry was posted on Monday, November 19th, 2007 at 1:17 pm and is filed under Logo Design News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.