Lego to End Partnership with Shell

Lego recently announced that it will not renew its contract with Shell when it ends in 2016. “We want to clarify that as things currently stand we will not renew the co-promotion contract with Shell when the present contract ends,” the company said in a statement released last week. The announcement comes after a three-month-long campaign by the environmental group, Greenpeace. The group set its sights on Lego, demanding that the toy company drop its partnership with Shell.

The company made it clear that it did not like the campaign by Greenpeace. Instead of a campaign targeting the company, Greenpeace should have had “direct conversation with Shell,” Jørgen Vig Knudstorp, president and CEO of the Lego Group, said in a statement by the company. Knudstorp added that Lego does not “want to be part of Greenpeace’s campaign, and we will not comment any further on the campaign.”

Greenpeace's public request to Lego shows just how viral a campaign can go these days when most folks have Facebook profiles and Twitter accounts. The environmental group created a petition titled Cut Ties With Shell. The petition stated that Shell is “mobilizing giant oil rigs” in the Arctic to drill for oil and that would put the lives of native wildlife such as polar bears and beluga whales at risk. It asked Lego to “take a stand against Arctic destruction” and not let its “good name be used to legitimize what cannot be legitimized.”

But the Greenpeace campaign consisted of more than just an online petition, as a blog post by the group shows. Here are other parts of the campaign:

1. The most viral video by Greenpeace in its history. The video depicts an Arctic oil spill using Lego toys and a sad rendition of a popular song. The end of the video features a link to the petition.


2. Giant Arctic animals built by children from Lego toys on the front of Shell’s London headquarters to protest Lego’s partnership with Shell.


3. Protests by activists using miniature Lego people, called Lego-lution.


4. At a Shell gas station in Legoland in Billund, Denmark, activists used tiny Lego climbers to hold a protest.


5. Over a million people globally emailed Lego and asked the company to end its partnership with Shell.

Back in July, Shell responded to the Greenpeace campaign with a statement by Knudstorp that stated: “Shell lives up to their responsibilities wherever they operate and take appropriate action to any potential claims should this not be the case.” Greenpeace responded in a blog post to the statement, countering that “there is ample evidence that Shell is not able to operate legally, or safely, in the Arctic.” The blog post cited “crashed oil rigs, blazing drill ships, crushed-like-a-beer-can emergency equipment, Alaskan tax dodges and ignored safety warnings.” Greenpeace also pointed out in the post that associating with Shell is “contrary to the very high environmental standards at the heart of who Lego are.”

If companies can learn one thing from the campaign it's that just releasing a statement condemning the campaign won't work. Groups like Greenpeace have a global reach that, combined with social media, make campaigns go viral very quickly. Many people are concerned about the environment and will decide to take part in a campaign. Opening dialogue with the environmental group goes a long way and would only strengthen a company's sustainability program.

Image courtesy of Greenpeace Lego-lution