Eric Worrall writes: WUWT readers might recall a nasty but successful Greenpeace campaign a few months ago, which had Santa Claus drowning in oil, seen above, and pressured LEGO Corporation into not renewing its deal with Shell, by spoofing the LEGO “everything is awesome” advertising campaign. Now it appears LEGO is fighting back, with a big “up yours” to Greenpeace by pushing their Arctic exploration collection with an advertising campaign of their own..
While the collection has been out since April 2014, LEGO is now stepping up advertising of their Arctic collection on Aussie TV, which features what looks very like toy arctic oil rigs, icebreakers, and Arctic construction equipment. Kids can fantasize about venturing into the frozen wilderness, to extract the fossil fuel which keeps the lights burning. It looks like fun – I’m going to buy one for my kid.
The following is the original Greenpeace spoof. Why Greenpeace targeted LEGO sales in service stations is a bit of a mystery. Presumably Greenpeace wanted parents to buy their kids unhealthy sweets instead of educational toys, when stopping to fill the gas tank.
I believe shell give hansomly to the greens. They organise and pay for lavish hotel accommodation for green conferences. Shell pay huge sums of money for advertising their “all of the above fuels” doctrine including conferences on ciries of the future, transport w/o fossil fuels etc.
Lego is getting a few points back from me.
The Lego Ice Breaker ship is my favorite.
Greenpus pollutes all minds, yound and old with their anti-oil, anti-fossil-fuel, anti-human, anti-science propaganda.
Can you get one of the Icebreakers complete with a banner saying “MV Akademik Shokalskiy (Ship of Fools) Rescue Team Funded by the Australian Tax Payer” ?
The purpose of that fiasco was to justify the cost of a bigger, better ice-breaker for Australia.
So news to me, does the Greenpeace fleet of party ships run on solar panels? That would be interesting to see. The folk who fund these nutters needs to look carefully at their dough and start applying some commonsense.
Nice one Lego!
Wooo Hooo!!!
Gonna start drilling for some oil. Maybe I’ll import and set up an Emperor Penguin colony. That should be fun with the polar bears and all!
I’m against the tactics of Greenpeace as anyone here, but I still fail to see how this advertising campaign by Lego is somehow an “up yours” to Greenpeace. GP itself probably does its share of ‘exploring’ (read: cruising around searching for anything to exploit for leftist political gain) in the arctic, but that doesn’t equate to having anything to do with oil, or gas.
The whole premise of the article is a reach, WUWT. It’s not helpful!
These exciting toys show kids that there are exciting careers in oil. Much better than being a Greenpeace luddite.
Except that they actually don’t show anything regarding ‘careers in oil’. That’s my point. I doubt Greenpeace would have any problem with this set of sets.
Gary, Greenpeace and other Environutist don’t want Man to have any impact on Nature since they seem to be of the opinion that anything Man does is not natural. (Or so their handlers tell them.)
Here’s a little background.
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/10/09/danish-toy-maker-lego-wont-renew-marketing-deal-with-shell-after-greenpeace/
Yes Gunga, I know the background, and I’m as against Greenpeace as you are. What I’m attempting to get through here is that the premise of this article falls flat. The advertising campaign by Lego regarding arctic exploration steers well clear of anything having to do with petroleum. That is why I contend that this is anything but an “up yours” to GP by Lego. If anything, Lego is submitting.
I wish they had told GP “up yours” from the beginning, but they’re apparently cowards along with all the rest of those one might wish would stand up to this kind of ginned-up bullying. Lego needs to be made aware that they’re being targeting by a very few political operatives masquerading as the many, and that the the last thing they should do is submit and play their game.
That Greenpeace spoof was too funny and pretty worrying at the same time. But I am not giving up my Lego Tecnic kits (8043 and 8110, which are not cheap) anytime soon.
Lego says their toys are for 6-12 year olds… Just like Greenpeace?
I know what my boys are getting for xmas
Patrick Moore on Greenpeace
How about a kit with a bunch of walrus’s haulouting
“Why Greenpeace targeted LEGO sales in service stations is a bit of a mystery. Presumably Greenpeace wanted parents to buy their kids unhealthy sweets instead of educational toys, when stopping to fill the gas tank.” I think it’s much simpler and not mysterious at all. Greenpeace wanted publicity and got it.
How about a BP oil rig – when finished it spontaneously explodes.
When finished before it explodes it employs hundreds of people and generates millions in corporation tax.
Hopefully children all over the world will have learned a useful lesson from this. Lego is good, Greenpeace is bad.
LEGO is made from plastic and that comes straight out of crude oil, no fossil fuel industry, no plastic and then where will we be ?
Santa drowning in oil? This is vaguely reminiscent of “Piss Christ”. I wonder if Green-“peace” received NEA funding. The emotional and political appeal must have an artistic value to someone.
Anyway, while Santa may not like concentrated deposits of oil (CO2, etc.) in every context, he must acknowledge that it is an important nutrient in the food chain, and a product of the Earth system’s secular recycling process, both organic and inorganic.
We don’t have teevee (got no use for all the boring mental swill) so I don’t know what the point of the ad was. If oil is on the down side of peaking, how can Santa be drowning in oil? [shrug]
As for Shell Oil, they are one of the most predatory multi-nationals on earth. They don’t give a sh*t about the 3rd world people whom they poison and murder while stealing their mineral resources with the ingratiating help of 3rd world dictators. Devils, all of them.
P. S. Kill your teevee…