Environmental group GreenPeace has pressured the plastic toymaker Lego to turn on its 54 year partnership with the Shell Oil Company. The environmental activist criticized Lego for pairing with a Big Oil company that planned to drill for oil in the arctic.
[WATCH: Everything Is Not Awesome]
GreenPeace launched an attack campaign toward Lego to push the company to drop its marketing campaign for Shell. The environmental group created a parody YouTube video called, “Everything Is Not Awesome.” The video launched in July drew 5.9 million viewers with its depiction of crude oil engulfing 265 pounds of plastic arctic pieces, reports The Guardian.
“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,” said John Sauven, executive director of Greenpeace UK.
However, is Lego and Shell’s partnership that odd?
The Danish toy company base their product off of plastic bricks, these bricks are made of a polymer, polymer is made from crude oil.
Lego prides itself on its environmental credentials and has focused on making its operations nearly one-third more energy efficient over the next five years, according to the 2013 Lego Group Responsibility Report.
Lego publicly protested GreenPeace’s campaign against Shell. “We do not agree with the tactics used by Greenpeace that may have created misunderstandings among our stakeholders about the way we operate; and we want to ensure that our attention is not diverted from our commitment to delivering creative and inspiring play experiences,” said president and CEO Jørgen Vig Knudstorp.
Even though Lego has not renewed their contract with Shell, “[They] we do not want to be part of Greenpeace’s campaign and we will not comment any further on the campaign. We will continue to deliver creative and inspiring LEGO play experiences to children all over the world,” said Vig Knudstrop.