Bosses of the 2012 Olympics were plunged into a fresh row last night after spending ￡400,000 on a controversial new logo for the London Games..

In a move billed as the most significant event since London beat Paris in 2005 in the race to host the Games, the organising committee unveiled a striking, jagged emblem as the official symbol for the Olympics.

Aimed at the younger, "internet generation", it will will also be used as the logo for the Paralympics and will be crucial to hopes of raising private sponsorship for both events.

Based roughly on the figures 2012 and apparently inspired by graffiti artists, the image - which replaces an earlier logo devised for London's bid to host the Games - was hailed as "dynamic" and "vibrant" by organisers.

Lord Coe, chairman of the London Games organising committee (Locog), said the new logo was "edgy" and appeared to suggest it was designed to provoke a strong reaction: "We don't do bland - this is not a bland city. We weren't going to come to you with a dull or dry corporate logo that would appear on a polo shirt and we're all gardening in it a year's time."

Tony Blair raised hopes that the symbol would leave people "inspired to make a positive change in their life" while Jacques Rogge, president of the International Olympic Committee, praised it as a "truly innovative brand" that would appeal to the young.

But the logo, which cost ￡400,000 and took the best part of a year to be devised by brand consultants Wolff Olins, came up against widespread disapproval yesterday, with one Jewish person even ringing the BBC to complain that it was reminiscent of the infamous Nazi SS symbol.

Design guru Stephen Bayley condemned it as "a puerile mess, an artistic flop and a commercial scandal".

An online petition to get the logo scrapped already had more than 16,000 signatures by 10am today, and on the Telegraph website readers were heavily critical. The London Games has been plagued by rocketing costs, with the original budget of ￡2.375 billion now standing at ￡9.3 billion.

Although LOCOG last night stressed that the logo was paid for by private money, Mr Bayley voiced his astonishment that the emblem - available in blue, pink, green and orange - had cost ￡400,000. "That's outrageous," he said. "There are 5,000 talented designers who could have done the job for ￡10,000."

【新聞快訊】2012年倫敦奧運(yùn)會(huì)的會(huì)徽共有粉色、橙色、藍(lán)色和綠色四種顏色，會(huì)徽可以根據(jù)不同時(shí)間、場(chǎng)合選擇使用。倫敦奧運(yùn)會(huì)的舉辦年份“2012”通過上下不規(guī)則變體形式成了會(huì)徽的主體，表示舉辦地點(diǎn)的“London”和奧運(yùn)會(huì)五環(huán)標(biāo)志被嵌在第一個(gè)“2”和“0”里面。

倫敦奧組委主席塞巴斯蒂安·科表示，這一標(biāo)識(shí)說明了這次盛會(huì)舉辦的地點(diǎn)和主題，“闡釋了我們所建造的場(chǎng)館、所承辦的奧運(yùn)會(huì)，并提醒我們屢行承諾，用奧林匹克精神去激勵(lì)世界上的每個(gè)人，拉近與青年人的距離。”

會(huì)徽一經(jīng)公布網(wǎng)友們就迅速作出了回應(yīng)，但大多數(shù)評(píng)價(jià)卻是負(fù)面的。由于這一會(huì)徽耗資40萬英鎊，一名網(wǎng)友在英國廣播公司互動(dòng)空間欄目中說，“這真是太糟糕了。有人得解釋解釋這40萬英磅究竟花在了什么地方?！绷硪晃痪W(wǎng)友說，“簡直糟糕透頂，完全是浪費(fèi)錢財(cái)?！?還有一位網(wǎng)友表示，“我希望他們?cè)跊Q定這個(gè)會(huì)徽之前先咨詢一下公眾的意見。那么，這個(gè)2012年奧運(yùn)會(huì)才會(huì)真正成為值得我們驕傲的事件。”

不過英國首相布萊爾則認(rèn)為，這一設(shè)計(jì)不會(huì)在一開始就符合每人的口味，但這確實(shí)是可以激勵(lì)年輕人參與的一個(gè)品牌，“這也是我們未來五年面臨的挑戰(zhàn)”。這一會(huì)徽將由2012年倫敦奧運(yùn)會(huì)和殘奧會(huì)共同使用，這在奧運(yùn)史上還是第一次。