Greenpeace Targets Lego for Shell Partnership in New Campaign

Environmental group Greenpeace staged a protest today at Legoland in Windsor, England, targeting Lego for their partnership with Shell, The Drum reports. Shell has faced harsh backlash from environmentalists for its arctic drilling program.

The campaign follows a report from Greenpeace, released today, which documents Lego's partnership with Shell and saw the environmental group placing banners reading "Save the Arctic" and "Block Shell" across various park landmarks. Lego toys have been made available at Shell gas stations, with some of the toys adopting Shell branding. "Sixteen million Shell-branded Lego toys have been sold or given away at petrol stations in 26 countries," according to Upstream. Greenpeace claims that Shell's PR company valued their most recent two-year deal with Lego at "$116 million and reported that Shell achieved a 7.5 percent worldwide sales uplift during the promotion," The Drum reported.

"Climate change is an enormous threat facing all children around the world, but Shell is trying to hijack the magic of Lego to hide its role," said Ian Duff, arctic campaigner at Greenpeace. "Climate change is an enormous threat facing all children around the world, but Shell is trying to hijack the magic of Lego to hide its role. It is using Lego to clean up its image and divert attention from its dangerous plans to raid the pristine arctic for oil. And it’s exploiting kids’ love of their toys to build lifelong loyalty it doesn’t deserve. It’s time for Lego to finally pull the plug on this deal. We’re calling on Lego to stand up for arctic protection, and for children, by ditching Shell for good."

The protest was relatively mild, as far as Greenpeace campaigns go, and saw the group placing banners reading "Save the Arctic" and "Block Shell" across various park landmarks. Shell suspended its plans to begin drilling in the Alaskan arctic earlier this year after a federal ruling put those plans on hold following widespread concerns from environmentalists and Alaskan natives.

Responding to the Greenpeace protest, Lego issued a statement outlining targets the company has made to measure environmental performance, while also stating that they will "continue to explore innovative and creative ways to solve the current environmental issues and deliver in compliance with ever-increasing standards."

"We're saddened when the Lego brand is used as a tool in any dispute," the company stated via Twitter, adding that they "fully expect Shell to live up to their responsibility and take appropriate action to any potential claims."