Knudstorp, CEO of the Lego Group, said in a statement on Thursday: “The Greenpeace campaign uses the Lego brand to target Shell. It does damage them a lot,” he told the Guardian.
But as we’ve shown, if you can’t get away with it, that social licence is taken away. It’s a good PR strategy if you can get away with it. “Clearly Shell is trying to piggy back on the credibility of other brands. He added that he hoped the move by Lego would prompt other organisations that work with Shell, such as London’s Science Museum, where Shell sponsors a climate change exhibition, to think twice about their partnerships. “It did touch a bit of a raw nerve about the partnership between the two companies that people thought was completely inappropriate – for a toy company like Lego to partner with an oil corporation – which is a sign of changes that are happening ,” he said. John Sauven, executive director of Greenpeace UK, said the response from the public to its campaign had been extraordinary in terms of scale and -creativity. Greenpeace video calling on Lego to end its partnership with Shell Greenpeace activists also targeted Legoland in Windsor by dressing as Lego figures, while the campaign video, entitled “Everything is not awesome” attracted 5.9m views. Lego had previously argued that the relationship had a positive impact on the world by inspiring children with its toy sets. Lego toy sets are currently distributed at petrol stations in 26 countries, in a deal valued at £68m. Jørgen Vig Knudstorp, the toy maker’s chief -executive, said Lego would honour its existing deal with Shell, which began in 2011, but “as things currently stand we will not renew the contract with Shell when the present contract ends”. Initially Lego had resisted Greenpeace, arguing that it ought to deal directly with Shell, but on Thursday it will relent.
The environmental campaign group, protesting about the oil giant’s plans to drill in the Arctic, had targeted the world’s biggest toy maker with a YouTube video that attracted nearly 6m views for its depiction of a pristine Arctic, built from 120kg of Lego, being covered in oil. Lego will not renew its marketing contract with Shell after coming under sustained pressure from Greenpeace to end a partnership that dates to the 1960s.