LEGO To End 50-Year Relationship With Shell Over Arctic Drilling

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Toymaker LEGO A/S announced on Thursday, October 9th that it would not be renewing its current contract with Royal Dutch Shell plc (ADR) (NYSE:RDS.A) (NYSE:RDS.B). The move comes after a three-month campaign from Greenpeace to convince the iconic toymaker to end it’s relationship with the profit-comes-first oil giant due to the company’s environmentally-unfriendly arctic oil exploration and production activities.

Until now, LEGO had refused to end their deal with Shell, arguing Greenpeace should deal directly with the oil company to resolve any problems it had with their operations. The European companies have worked together since the mid-1960s, with Shell allowing its logo to be used on special LEGO bricks and figures.

Shell had no comment on LEGO’s announcement today.

Greenpeace’s anti-Arctic drilling Campaign

As part of its anti-Arctic drilling campaign, Greenpeace put together a YouTube video that has been viewed by almost six million people. The video showed Lego figures in a gorgeous Arctic landscape despoiled by an oil spill.

The soundtrack was a mournful version of the ‘Everything is Awesome’ theme song from the mega-hit LEGO Movie.

Also of note, more than one million people signed a petition requesting LEGO end its relationship with Shell during Greenpeace’s campaign.

Greenpeace described LEGO’s decision today as “a huge blow to Shell’s strategy of partnering with beloved brands to clean up its dirty image as an Arctic oil driller.”

LEGO is world’s biggest toymaker

Just a few month ago, LEGO, based in Denmark and selling toys in 130 countries across the globe, became the biggest toymaker in the world in terms of both revenue and profits.

The private, family-owned business overtook long-time leading toymaker Mattel, Inc. (NASDAQ:MAT), which has been trying to rebound from weakening global sales and slowing demand for leading product Barbie dolls and Fisher-Price toys over the last few quarters.

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