I have just seen two very tall scary monsters on TV lumbering slowly down a London street, snapping their sharp lobster like claws, and scanning the fleeing crowds with their huge, single malevolent eye.

No I wasn’t watching Doctor Who and Amy Pond doing battle with the universe’s most heinous fiends, I was watching the launch of the Olympic 2012 mascots. These characters, named Wenlock and Mandeville, sound more like the villains in a Sherlock Holmes novel rather than important ambassadors for the Olympic brand.

I disliked them immediately and my reaction was one simple question, ‘Why?’

But having spoken to colleagues, friends and family, I see that opinion is polarised. For everyone who thinks that they look like roast beef flavour Monster Munch, there is another who thinks that they are cute, cuddly and exciting. (Most agree however that the one on the left looks like it has wet itself!)

Love them or hate them, within a few years they will become two of the most instantly recognisable images in the world. And those of us who see them as monsters now will probably grow to grudgingly love them.

Maybe.