Olli is a Dutch children's book character and a

stuffed toy A stuffed toy is a toy with an outer fabric sewn from a textile and stuffed with flexible material. They are known by many names, such as plush toys, plushies, lovies and stuffies; in Britain and Australia, they may also be called soft toys ...

. The character Olli was created in 2004 by Dutch designer and film director Hein Mevissen along with writer Diederiekje Bok as a character for a bottled

mineral water Mineral water is water from a mineral spring that contains various minerals, such as salts and sulfur compounds. It is usually still, but may be sparkling ( carbonated/ effervescent). Traditionally, mineral waters were used or consumed at t ...

. Olli was one of the many characters used on the

packages Package may refer to: Containers or enclosures * Packaging and labeling, enclosing or protecting products * Mail, items larger than a letter * Chip package or chip carrier * Electronic packaging, in electrical engineering * Automotive package, in ...

and posters of the bottled water brand and John's Phone. Olli was launched at a party of

MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...

in 2004. In 2013, Olli was again part of a campaign, this time to save the Rotterdam Zoo

Diergaarde Blijdorp (; ), officially Rotterdam Zoo, is a zoo located in the northwestern part of Rotterdam. It is one of the oldest zoos in the Netherlands, and has been operated by the ("Royal Rotterdam Zoo Foundation"). Divided into several zoogeographic regio ...

. Olli is part of the Ollimania family which is the company that created and owns all characters. After the launch, Olli became the symbol of

and a

mascot A mascot is any human, animal, or object thought to bring luck, or anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, sports team, university society, society, military unit, or brand, brand name. Mascots are als ...

for professional football club

Feyenoord Feyenoord Rotterdam () is a Netherlands, Dutch professional association football, football club based in Rotterdam, which plays in the Eredivisie, the top tier in Dutch football league system, Dutch football. Founded as Wilhelmina in 1908, the ...

. On 10 September 2015, Ollimania and its creators Hein Mevissen and Diederiekje Bok donated a huge Olli statue to the Sophia

children's hospital A children's hospital (CH) is a hospital that offers its services exclusively to infants, children, adolescents, and young adults from birth up to until age 18, and through age 21 and older in the United States. In certain special cases, the ...

in Rotterdam.

Books

The first two Ollimania books were launched in October 2014. 'Olli en het poepkanon' and 'Olli is een olifant'. Both books made it into the top 10 of best sold children books in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. In June 2015 Ollimania published two new books called 'Olli en de woestijndraak' and 'Olli op reis'. *2014 – ''Olli en het poepkanon'' (

Leopold Leopold may refer to: People * Leopold (given name), including a list of people named Leopold or Léopold * Leopold (surname) Fictional characters * Leopold (''The Simpsons''), Superintendent Chalmers' assistant on ''The Simpsons'' * Leopold B ...

) (Dutch) *2014 – ''Olli is een olifant'' (Leopold) (Dutch and German) *2015 – ''Olli en de woestijndraak'' (Leopold) (Dutch and English) *2015 – ''Olli gaat op reis'' (Leopold) (Dutch) *2015 – ''Olli and the pudding rocket'' (Leopold) (Dutch and English) *2015 – ''Een kusje voor Tutje'' (Leopold) (Dutch) *2016 - ''Olli droomt'' (Leopold) (Dutch and English) *2016 – ''Olli wordt later'' (Leopold) (Dutch) *2016 – ''Sugar Mousey It's always about love'' Ollimania (English) *2016 – ''Hello Olli'' (Ollimania) (English) *2016 - ''Olli ce hero's'' (Ollimania) (French, German and English) *2016 – ''The art of Ollimania''(Ollimania) (English) *2017 – ''Happy Ollidays''(Ollimania) (English) (Dutch) (French) *2017 – ''My Big Hero'' (Ollimania) (English) (Dutch) (French) *2018 – ''The old forest'' (Ollimania) (English) (Dutch) *2018 - ''De fantastische reis van de geluksbrenger'' (Ollimania) (Dutch and English)

Big Olli

There are two big Ollies. They are the elder version of small Olli. The Big Olli is a special creature model made for several charities. One is a permanent hard plastic

polyester Polyester is a category of polymers that contain one or two ester linkages in every repeat unit of their main chain. As a specific material, it most commonly refers to a type called polyethylene terephthalate (PET). Polyesters include some natura ...

statue A statue is a free-standing sculpture in which the realistic, full-length figures of persons or animals are carved or Casting (metalworking), cast in a durable material such as wood, metal or stone. Typical statues are life-sized or close to ...

at the Sophia

Children's hospital A children's hospital (CH) is a hospital that offers its services exclusively to infants, children, adolescents, and young adults from birth up to until age 18, and through age 21 and older in the United States. In certain special cases, the ...

and another one has a temporarily place at the

Rotterdam Zoo (; ), officially Rotterdam Zoo, is a zoo located in the northwestern part of Rotterdam. It is one of the oldest zoos in the Netherlands, and has been operated by the ("Royal Rotterdam Zoo Foundation"). Divided into several zoogeographic regio ...

. The big Olli that is used in the short film to save the Rotterdam ZOO is stored at a secret location according to the creators.

Fictional character biography

Olli is a toy elephant grown to the size of a real elephant. Olli is a lovable character with furry friends living in a fantasy world. In 2013, the story was expanded that he was the favorite toy of association football player

Giovanni van Bronckhorst Giovanni Christiaan "Gio" van Bronckhorst (born 5 February 1975) is a Dutch Association football, football manager and former player who last managed Süper Lig club Beşiktaş J.K., Beşiktaş. Originally a midfielder, he moved to left-back lat ...

. Together they are the main cast of a short film. In Rotterdam,

of 1980, Giovanni van Bronckhorst is a little boy (played in the short film by the son of Giovanni van Bronckhorst). One day, he discovers a stuffed Elephant at the Rotterdam Zoo and grows attached to it. The name of the elephant is Olli. Giovanni takes him everywhere he goes, especially when he plays football. One day during a game, he loses Olli in the river the Maas in Rotterdam. 28 years later in 2013, Giovanni became an association football Player and trainer of

, and Olli, also grew big, reunite again.

Background

Hein Mevissen and Diederiekje Bok have a history in creating things that help people. To give something back to society and convince big brands to do so too. Olli was a few times part of a strategy they developed in 2004 and created Olli as a separate brand to generate awareness and in one campaign to generate more traffic and money for

Blijdorp Zoo (; ), officially Rotterdam Zoo, is a zoo located in the northwestern part of Rotterdam. It is one of the oldest zoos in the Netherlands, and has been operated by the ("Royal Rotterdam Zoo Foundation"). Divided into several zoogeographic region ...

Copyright infringement

In 2015, John Doe BV of Olli sued insurance company

ASR Nederland ASR Nederland is a major Dutch insurance group based in Utrecht. The company was created in its current form in 2008 when the insurance business was split out of Fortis, after it was acquired by the Dutch government during the 2008 financial cri ...

in summary proceedings for systematically infringing their copyright. ASR Nederland unlawfully used drawings and photos that they retrieved from the Ollimania website and used without permission to sell their insurance policies. The judge ruled in John Doe's favor and banned ASR Nederland from using images of Olli for their benefit any longer. John Doe suggested to ASR Nederland to return the Olli's that the insurance company had withheld to Diergaarde Blijdorp. ASR Nederland was allowed to decide for itself what to do with the withheld Olli's and chose not to return them to Blijdorp Zoo.

Awards

In December 2013 Hein Mevissen and Diederiekje Bok of John Doe got awarded with the highest Dutch advertising award the Golden Loeki for this campaign. The agency John Doe got the award in a

Live television Live television is a television production broadcast in real-time, as events happen, in the present. In a secondary meaning, it may refer to streaming television where all viewers watch the same stream simultaneously, rather than watching vide ...

show from Arian Buurman, CEO of the

Stichting Ether Reclame Ster (Stichting Ether Reclame, English: 'Foundation for Ether Advertisement') is a Dutch organisation responsible for the broadcast of radio and television ads on the media outlets of NPO. With the income from these, parts of the costs of publ ...

who hosts the Loeki awards.

References

External links

Official Olli website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Olli Animated characters 2010s children's books Fictional elephants Anthropomorphic elephants Stuffed toys Feyenoord Association football mascots Elephant mascots Dutch mascots Series of children's books Children's books about elephants 2015 sculptures Sculptures of elephants Dutch children's books