The world’s biggest toymaker, Lego, is ending a marketing partnership with Shell that dates back to the 1960s, after Greenpeace earned six million views with a YouTube video that showed an Arctic scene—built with 120 kilograms of Lego bricks—drowning in an oil spill.
“As things currently stand, we will not renew the contract with Shell when the present contract ends,” said Lego CEO Jørgen Vig Knudstorp. “Lego toy sets are currently distributed at petrol stations in 26 countries, in a deal valued at £68 million,” Vaughan writes. “Lego had previously argued that the relationship had a positive impact on the world by inspiring children with its toy sets.”
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“We firmly believe Greenpeace ought to have a direct conversation with Shell,” Knudstorp said. But branding consultant Mark Borkowski said Greenpeace did “an outstanding job” with its campaign. “This is a wake-up call to oil and gas and other energy companies, that need to recognize they cannot lobby the generation that is going to inherit the Earth. Their spin machines need to wake up to that.”
