Lego has announced it will end it’s 50-year partnership with Shell, after a Greenpeace video used its toys to illustrate an Arctic oil spill. The decision comes after the parody video by the environmental group went viral online, garnering more than 5 million YouTube hits, over the oil giant’s plan to drill in the Arctic. Using Lego blocks, the video starts by showing animals in a snowy wilderness before moving on to a scene of heavy machinery drilling for oil. To gentle background music a Shell branded road tanker and petrol station are brought into view - before it zooms in on a pin-striped businessman smoking a cigar on a Shell offshore drilling rig.
We want to clarify that as things currently stand we will not renew the co-promotion contract with Shell when the present contract ends.
Lego CEO Jorgen Vig Knudstorp
A crude oil slick then starts spreading before the Arctic ‘drowns’ in a black sea. The video ends with two captions: “Shell is polluting our kids’ imaginations” and “Tell Lego to end its partnership with Shell”. Lego products are currently sold at Shell petrol stations in more than two dozen countries. In response to the campaign said the current deal with the Anglo-Dutch Shell, negotiated in 2011, would not be renewed. A Lego statement said: “The Greenpeace campaign uses the Lego brand to target Shell. As we have stated before, we firmly believe Greenpeace ought to have a direct conversation with Shell. The Lego brand, and everyone who enjoys creative play, should never have become part of Greenpeace’s dispute with Shell.”
Our latest co-promotion with Lego has been a great success and will continue to be as we roll it out in more countries across the world.
A Shell spokesman