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The scene that gets me is when a stranded Lego Arctic fox cub is encircled by an unrelenting tide of black oil. This is less than one minute into our film – 'Lego: Everything is not awesome', and the pristine Arctic landscape has vanished. In our film, Shell has moved in, invited by Lego, and disaster has struck.
We wanted to create a film with emotional resonance to raise the profile of our campaign which calls on Lego to end its co-promotional deal with Shell. We used pieces from the Lego City Arctic range for the film.
Since 2012, Shell's Arctic drilling programme has faced fierce criticism from environmental NGOs and regulators. We are campaigning against this in our Save the Arctic campaign. Drilling in this pristine region risks oil spill under ice that would be impossible to clean up.
In that same time period, 16m Shell-branded Lego sets were sold or given away at petrol stations in 33 countries, making Shell a major contributor to Lego's global sales. Lego partnering with Star Wars or with Harry Potter makes a lot of sense. Making toys for a controversial international oil major does not.
The film was designed to increase the pressure on Lego to cut its ties with Shell. Arguably it is the way the film subverts and disrupts expectations that explains why more than 4.5 million people have watched it since it was released earlier this month. More than 520,000 have signed our petition and the internet is talking about how Lego has got it wrong and why fans are so upset with the beloved toy brand.
Mixing the familiar with unexpected
A big motif for our campaign is the casting of the familiar with the unexpected. With the film, we decided to remix the hit theme tune of the Lego Movie 'Everything is Awesome' because we knew Lego fans would get the reference and respond to it. The track is slowed down and becomes a haunting accompaniment to the catastrophe unveiling on screen as oil floods over an impressive and intricate build.
Using a cover of the Lego Movie theme tune was a risky move, but we knew we had a right under freedom of speech to parody it for our protest. And we chose to take the risk of copyright conflict because we were sure the irony wouldn't be lost on Lego fans. The song got our message across better than anything else could. The Lego Movie villain, Lord Business, was also too good a parody to miss. So we created our own grinning cigar-smoking oil tycoon to blast Lego's deal with Shell.
Tapping into popular culture
As well as Lego fans, we wanted to engage other audiences that share a lot online. To build chatter around the film, we tapped into the trend of Lego stop frame animation story-telling. And we gave a referential nod to a well-known promotional video for the popular Halo computer game, to attract gaming communities and YouTube users.
We hoped the high production values would impress too. It was all part of our strategy to seed the film widely so it would trickle down to fans and parents. The agency we chose has an incredible track record of creating popular viral videos and great contacts that really helped the film to fly.
Starting a conversation
Our intent was also for the film to become a lightning rod for discourse around corporations advertising to children. When Lego puts Shell's logo on its toys, Shell's brand starts to be normalised for another generation – future voters, business leaders, consumers or politicians. While our diorama is a tribute to how much we love the creativity and imagination that Lego fosters, the film is unambiguous that the protection of the Arctic, and our children's future, is at odds with its Shell partnership.
The film helps us keep the brand responsibility conversation going and looks at how values start to interlace as brands come together. In Lego's case, that means it is helping to clean up Shell's image by allowing Shell to latch on to its family-friendly, trusted heritage. Lego commented that it expects Shell "lives up to their responsibilities wherever they operate," and it intends to "live up to the long term contract with Shell". If Shell can commandeer the toy company's values, then Shell's business in the Arctic deserves more attention from Lego than simply passing the buck. Time will tell if this outdated approach to criticism lasts as our campaign grows.
We're only at the start of this campaign, and we plan to carry on until we've won. The campaign has already had more than half a million people sign up and hundreds of thousands have written to Lego to urge them to cancel the deal. Our first film asked Lego to come down off the fence, do the planet a favour and end its deal with Shell. What comes next depends on Lego's response.
Elena Polisano is an Arctic campaigner for Greenpeace.
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