LEGO Daily Mail link up ends after fan campaign

After a dedicated LEGO fan and parent started a social media campaign, the LEGO Group has announced it has no further promotional activity with right-wing publication the Daily Mail. For a number of years, the LEGO Group has partnered with national UK tabloids to give away LEGO polybags as a promotional opportunity. In recent years, the Daily Mail has been the print title of choice for the company.

LEGO fan and concerned parent Bob Jones recently felt that the Daily Mail’s sensationalised coverage of difficult issues had gone too far, and could not in good faith support the LEGO Group’s products while the company was cross-promoting with the publication.

Bob’s post, published on November 4, read:

While I disagree with their political stand I can accept their right to have it. But lately their headlines have gone beyond offering a right wing opinion. Headlines that do nothing but create distrust of foreigners, blame immigrants for everything, and as of yesterday are now having a go at top judges in the U.K. for being gay while making a legal judgment.

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As part of the broader Stop Funding Hate campaign, which encourages retailers and manufacturers to not take out advertising space in the Daily Mail and other right-wing publications, Bob had quite the impact.

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After tens of thousand of shares, and a prompting of fans and social media campaigners bombarding the LEGO Group’s social media channels, the LEGO Group announced that promotional activity with the Daily Mail was no longer part of the company’s plans. The announcement was made today, just a week after Bob’s post.

Roar Rude Trangbaek of the LEGO Group have a statement to The Independent:

“We spend a lot of time listening to what children have to say. And when parents and grandparents take the time to let us know how they feel, we always listen just as carefully.

“We are both humbled and honoured to see how much consumers all over the world express their care for our company and our brand. And we will continuously do our very best to live up to the trust and faith that people all around the world show us every day.

“The agreement with The Daily Mail has finished and we have no plans to run any promotional activity with the newspaper in the foreseeable future.”

Many fans will be pleased by the news, although some may be frustrated to miss out on an opportunity to get cheap LEGO polybags.

Author Profile

Graham
Graham was the BrickFanatics.com Editor up until November 2020. He has plenty of experience working on LEGO related projects. He has contributed to various websites and publications on topics including niche hobbies, the toy industry and education.

Follw Graham on Twitter @grahamh100.

Graham

Graham was the BrickFanatics.com Editor up until November 2020. He has plenty of experience working on LEGO related projects. He has contributed to various websites and publications on topics including niche hobbies, the toy industry and education. Follw Graham on Twitter @grahamh100.

One thought on “LEGO Daily Mail link up ends after fan campaign

  • 12/11/2016 at 20:36
    Permalink

    I wonder if Lego will link up with another paper now?

    This story is a repeat of Page 3 story with The Sun a couple years ago, and the campaign to stop the Lego polybags with The Sun. Lego stated then that they had finished their deal with The Sun and moved onto the Daily Mail.

    Lego are a notoriously apolitical company, so clearly they’d like to shy away from any political controversy. I bet that they’re not happy with their name being used to say that they support any particular side in this argument.

    Personally (knowing the Lego group’s history) I don’t believe Lego support ANY political views and that by buying Lego is somehow a support of a particular political opinion. I’m a bit tired of Lego getting dragged into this issues, from Page 3, to Shell, to Ai Weiwei to the Daily Mail.

    No doubt this won’t affect people behind this campaign (as they weren’t interested in cheap polybags), but for Lego fans cheap polybags may not be available any more (especially as this campaign targets a few tabloid papers).

    Reply

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