LEGO children and animals drown in oil as a downbeat cover of the song “Everything is Awesome” plays in the latest Greenpeace protest aimed at the partnership between the toy creators and Shell Oil Company.
LEGO and Shell Oil have been collaborating on promotions as far as 1966, with the former creating service station sets and special edition cars featuring the latter’s logo. As part of its continuing protest against Arctic drilling, Greenpeace wants to see the partnership terminated.
The environmental organisation has created a microsite for the movement, staged live protests, and now they have created this incredibly depressing two-minute protest video.
Responding to Greenpeace’s actions earlier this month via Twitter, the LEGO Group had this to say:
We’re determined to leave a positive impact on our society & children. We’re saddened when the LEGO brand is used as a tool in any dispute between organisations. However, we fully expect Shell to live up to their responsibility & take appropriate action to any potential claims
Is it time for the nearly 50 years of collaboration between LEGO and Shell to end?
Comments
22 responses to “Greenpeace Ruins A Perfectly Good LEGO Diorama To Make A Point”
Lego service stations were a mad part of my childhood and i hope its going to be the same for future generations.
Time to take the fight to the hippies!
I’m sure Lego service stations will be around for a while, but with the way things are going, they’ll be modelled off Tesla supercharging stations, as petrol-based stations fade into obscurity.
Man, now I want a Lego electric charging station. I’m sure it already exists.
SAXTON HALE!
Greenpeace… Far out man, just leave me alone!
Maybe it’s time for future generation of children to have their own “mad part” of their childhood that they can be proud of. Move with the times, maan. Back in 60s, fossil fuels were an integral part of our society. We don’t need to rely on it anymore.
No, but service stations are still around. Kids still visit them when their parent fill up. Kids play is often a mirror to their parents behavior, actions etc.
So why not have service stations? And why shouldn’t that be Shell?
I thought Lego had their own fuel brand like Octan or something?
They do, but they’ve also done cross promotions in the past. It’s actually pretty smart selling cheap little LEGO cars in their petrol stations. Kids go in with their parents to pay for the petrol, they see the display, they know they love LEGO and they convince their parents to buy one. Essentially the Happy Meal of petrol stations. Even the parents think it’s a good deal because it’s real LEGO that goes with their other LEGO at home, and not just the usual crap kids see on those dodgy toy racks.
Shouldn’t that by ‘why should that be Shell?’. I mean we are talking about money changing hands to promote a company to children. Whether you think the influence is good, bad or neutral it’s still sort of sleazy. I don’t think it’s important enough to change it but if they were establishing a partnership today I’d say they should probably go with generic petrol stations.
In the past I would have considered it harmless, I’m pretty sure we played with Shell petrol station toys when I was a kid and it had zero impact, but as an adult I’ve got to question the motivations a bit more.
A Shell LEGO set isn’t going to let Shell get away with anything. Fake smokes aren’t going to make kids smoke. The specific examples are all pretty harmless, but at the same time marketing today is so much more precise and targeted you’ve got to go ‘well, there’s a line that’s hard to define, so lets just not be ok with this sort of cross promotion aimed at children’.
Current Shell sets are Ferrari branded, they just happen to have the Shell logo and be sold in Shell outlets. I doubt most kids would make the connection to Shell, and even those who do aren’t going to suddenly think Shell are good.
Perhaps because they are using the brand to clean up their image rather than actually cleaning up the damage they do?
As a marketing ploy I actually think it’s quite clever, but on that note Greenpeace using it against them is equally as clever.
Needs more space ship.
Spaceship! SPACESHIP!! SpAcesHip!!!
been waiting a fortnight for my Benny’s Spaceship to arrive from the LEGO company, getting all excited!
I love how the bottom part of his helmet was cracked. It’s those nice little details that lets you know they’re passsionate about what they’re doing.
let’s not overlook the irony of lego (i.e. plastic) being MADE out of petroleum .
To be honest, that’s where I thought this whole thing was going until I read the article.
Me too. Then again I only really had the technic when I was a kid. Still a mad Lego collector though.
So playing with a toy which has a loose association with a company representing part of an industry is bad, but taking your kids to loud and potentially violent protest marches (as Greenpeace members typically do) is perfectly acceptable? Please, do continue…
My thoughts on the subject are here
http://brickingaround.com/2014/07/09/greenpeace-take-on-lego-over-shell-partnership/
Note: that link is to a LEGO blog, and there may be a bias. I have done my best to remain objective.
The short version is that in recent years the partnership has yielded 6 sets that were released at Shell petrol stations. Green peace also ignore the current LEGO Arctic theme that will encourage kids to learn more about the region.
I wonder if 3D printers have effected Lego sales…seeing they both use ABS
You want to stop Petrol Greenpeace? make a cheap long ranged electric car.
If you had the choice of buying a new car that ran on $1.60 and rising petrol or an Electric version of the car that ran on cheaper electricity and they where the same price and quality why would you buy the Petrol one?
I’d love to buy a Tesla S, but it’s competing with a BMW M5 and both are way out of my league. Give me a $13,000 Electric car and watch them sell like Hotcakes!
By ruining the LEGO with “oil”, they have added to the problem. Now they have waste “oil” to dispose of, and damaged LEGO that cannot be used without cleaning with harsh chemicals.