Danish Royals criticised for ‘advertising’ LEGO

Danish Crown Princess Mary has been handing out LEGO sets to schoolchildren in Brazil. While children would likely be pleased to receive the gifts, the move has been questioned by Danish news site BT, highlighting the number of times that the Danish royal family have attended a number of events connected to the LEGO Group over the past three years.

Business Insider Nordic reported some of the reaction:

“It’s advertising, you can’t buy it for money,” says Søren Jakobsen, author of several books about the upper class, to BT. “It might be okay once, but not when it happens all the time, because that downgrades their credibility as Denmark’s next regents.”

The LEGO Group provided comment to BT on the issue:

“What I can say is that of course we are always pleased when members of the royal family attending events that are related to our business or product,” says Senior Communication Manager at Lego, Kathrine Bisgaard Vase.

As a globally successful company that is known for being rooted in Denmark — particularly with such a positively associated brand — the LEGO Group is often perceived as an ambassador for the nation. It is natural that within Denmark, however, the issue of how much influence the company has continues to be debated.