The Issue

In December 2011, Shell launched a campaign to persuade the general public that it was safe for them  to drill in the Arctic. In response, in June 2012 Greenpeace UK launched the Save the Arctic Campaign, which targeted Shell and its shareholders by raising legal and regulatory issues, as well as galvanizing public support through stunts and petitions against Shell’s plans. In 2014, the Save the Arctic Campaign targeted Shell’s profitable brand partnerships with companies that had a broader consumer appeal, such as Formula 1 and Lego. Greenpeace believed that Shell used these brands to soften its image as a fossil fuel company, especially in the case of Lego which is known as a trusted and family-friendly children’s brand.

Since the 1960s, the Danish toy company Lego partnered with oil companies such as Esso, Exxon and Shell to produce branded toy sets sold at gas stations around the world. In the 1990s, Lego rebranded many of these toys under a fictitious oil company called “Octan” which became part of The Lego Movie and was led by a character called “Lord Business”. Despite this image of corporate skepticism, Shell and Lego’s partnership continued, valued at $116 million with over 16 million toy sets distributed across 33 countries.

The Organization

Greenpeace is an environmental non-governmental organization (NGO) with offices in over 40 countries and with an international coordinating body in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Greenpeace has been campaigning against environmental degradation since 1971 and today brings together 2.8 million supporters worldwide. Greenpeace uses direct action, lobbying, research and public campaigns to advocate for environmental issues. Video has often played a key role in its work, and Greenpeace has learned to use it in an increasingly strategic way over the years.

This case study focuses on Greenpeace UK’s campaign against Lego’s partnership with Shell and the “Everything is NOT Awesome”video, which within three months had six million views, making it the most viral video in Greenpeace’s history.

The Video

Greenpeace UK worked with the London-based creative agency “Don't Panic” which had previously made hard-hitting viral videos about social causes. The company produced Greenpeace’s Lego viral video “Everything is NOT Awesome” in three weeks by using 120 kilos of Lego bricks to recreate several scenes of everyday life in the Arctic.  

The creative premise of the “Everything is NOT Awesome” video was to take Lego’s intellectual property and ‘turn it on its head’ by using the familiar lego pieces and then surprising Lego fans with what would happen to the Lego figurines in the video. With this strategy in mind, the video begins with shots of a tranquil Lego Arctic landscape with families, animals, an oil drill and other figurines. This scene is set to a slow, remixed version of the originally playful “Everything is Awesome” song from The Lego Movie playing in the background. This new version of the tune gives the Lego Arctic scene a poignant tone, and foreshadows the moment when the drill fails and oil spills onto the set, gradually submerging everything with thick black liquid. At the end of the 1.45 minute video, the only object left visible is Shell’s flag on the top of a hill covered in oil.

Greenpeace’s parody videos deliberately do not contain much substantive information on the issue and - much like the video targeting Nestle - are used as teasers to draw activist viewers into learning more and/or taking action on their website or elsewhere. The challenge for Greenpeace is therefore to communicate the message in a compelling enough manner to make the viewer want to learn more without getting into details. Interestingly, the style of the “Everything is NOT Awesome” video also was inspired by the “Believe” trailer for the hit Xbox game Halo 3, which helped Greenpeace tap into gaming communities and YouTube users who otherwise are not their traditional activists.

While there were no specific safety and security issues for producing the Nestle and Lego videos, in both cases the companies targeted immediately requested that YouTube take the videos down alleging copyright and trademark violations. Even though there was legal risk associated with this strategy, Greenpeace gained visibility from the outrage of activists online and users uploaded the video onto numerous other sites, only creating more buzz around the issue. Despite the risk, Greenpeace maintained that its right to free speech protected it from legal copyright and trademark issues, given that the videos were parodies.

It is worth noting some conditions that contributed to Greenpeace’s successful campaign:

• Externally, consumers increasingly value corporate transparency and use online media to engage on these issues. As a result, the misfit brand partnership between Lego and Shell lent itself to a campaign where a well-produced video could go viral and serve as a campaign centerpiece.

• Internally, Greenpeace UK had the institutional capacity and budget for scale and creativity, risking copyright conflict and investing a large budget in producing and distributing the video. The polished piece depended on savvy production skills and gained respect of the design and advertising communities, who also helped deliver their message to broader audiences that went beyond the traditional Greenpeace activists.