LEGO ends 50-plus year partnership with Shell

LEGO has announced it will not renew a co-promotion deal with Shell in response to a Greenpeace viral video targeting the partnership between the Danish toymaker and Shell, which has attracted more than six million views on YouTube in four months.“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,” Jørgen Vig Knudstorp, president and CEO of the LEGO Group, said in a statement.“We do not want to be part of Greenpeace’s campaign and we will not comment any further on the campaign.”Entitled “LEGO: Everything is NOT awesome”, the spoof video on the LEGO movie came with a petition to call on the Danish toymaker to cease the partnership with Shell because of its drilling in the Arctic.Shell-branded LEGO sets are currently distributed at petrol stations in 26 countries.The decision brings to an end the long-running partnership that dates to the 1960s.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhbliUq0_r4Of Greenpeace’s campaign directed at Shell, Knudstorp responded: “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.”