LEGO Surrenders to Greenpeace Pressure

A few months back, shots.net featured Don’t Panic London’s campaign for environmental campaigners Greenpeace, which slammed LEGO for its partnership with Shell due to the energy giant’s decision to drill for oil in the Arctic.

A creative film, titled Everything is NOT Awesome, presented LEGO figures and location sets being drowned in oil in the Arctic.

Now, just three months after the campaign launched, LEGO has announced that it will not be renewing its contract with Shell oil. The news is quite a shock, as the toy brand has spent 50 years promoting the oil.

Of the decision, Lego Group president and chief executive, Jørgen Vig Knudstorp, says: “The long-term co-promotion contract we entered with Shell in 2011 delivers on the objective of bringing Lego bricks into the hands of many children, and we will honour it – as we would with any contract we enter.

“We continuously consider many different ways of how to deliver on our promise of bringing creative play to more children. We want to clarify that as things currently stand we will not renew the co-promotion contract with Shell when the present contract ends.”

However, when the Greenpeace film aired, Knudstorp suggested that LEGO shouldn’t be criticised for Shell’s actions.

He commented: “The Greenpeace campaign focuses on how Shell operates in a specific part of the world. We firmly believe that this matter must be handled between Shell and Greenpeace. We are saddened when the LEGO brand is used as a tool in any dispute between organisations.”