SERIOUS: Lego is not racist.
Martin, my Danish partner-in-crime, recently brought to my attention a controversy that's been set off by the U.N. (which controversy *isn't* these days?)...or rather, the U.N.'s design team. Can you find anything wrong with this, their poster for International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (March 21st)?
If your immediate answer is "no", don't worry, you're not alone. I wasn't sure what the problem was, either, and I'm pretty brushed up on my Danish pop culture trivia.
Basically, Danish citizens think this is a very clever, incredibly subtle insult to their country. Lego originated in Denmark, and along with a few other cultural icons -- Carlsberg, the Little Mermaid, Hamlet -- the company believes itself to be a very obvious symbol of the small country. In the wake of the Danish cartoon debacle, to use a quintessentially Danish emblem, the 3-dimensional Lego block, in a campaign to identify racism as a "different shape" from the 2-dimensional status quo, is to insult 5 million people with already sensitive skins.
Let's see. My opinion? The U.N. made a mistake. You'd think an organization would have "fact-checked" its props, especially for a widely published poster (multi-lingual, at that). It advertised a day that while largely uncelebrated (I mean, let's face it, shouldn't *every* day be International-Eliminate-Racism-Day?), is still publicized in the global community. SOMEone should have caught the Denmark-Lego connection, at least before the Danish did.
I do not think Lego is a racist company, though their concern with bad PR is understandable. Lego spokespeople made an interesting point, though; the U.N. has worked with Lego on refugee commission posters (pictured left)...why wouldn't they have informed the company in advance that they were printing more literature with the Lego mark on it?
I still find it difficult to believe that someone in the graphic art world was taking a cheap shot at the people of Denmark. What would be the point of putting salt in such an open wound? Danish goods are being boycotted, and its citizens no longer enjoy their peaceful status in the international cast of characters. I can't believe that even the most staunch Muslim supporters within the UN would approve such a public slap in the face. No matter, soon after the posters were released, they were taken down from the website after plenty of complaints, and you'll only find it on a number of blogs and small feature articles in obscure European newspapers now.
There wasn't a ton of press about this -- likely because not many immediately associate Lego with Denmark -- but I think you do have to sympathize, in a way: all of this, because of some EDITORIAL cartoons in a newspaper circulated to no more than 3 million people, in a country that has finally put itself on the world map for something it would much rather have kept under the radar.
A good deal of blogging took place about the topic [no surprise there], a few days ago...I'm a little late, as it turns out:
* In support of Legos in UN campaigns
* Outrage [from an American] at the suggestion that this wasn't a pointed attack at the Danes (to get to the right entry, search "Lego" within the webpage
* If you can read Danish, click here for Politiken's report on Lego's outrage. (Note: Politiken is *not* the newspaper that published the cartoons.)
English Poster graphic taken from politiken.dk.
Arabic poster graphic taken from michellemalkin.com.
If your immediate answer is "no", don't worry, you're not alone. I wasn't sure what the problem was, either, and I'm pretty brushed up on my Danish pop culture trivia.
Basically, Danish citizens think this is a very clever, incredibly subtle insult to their country. Lego originated in Denmark, and along with a few other cultural icons -- Carlsberg, the Little Mermaid, Hamlet -- the company believes itself to be a very obvious symbol of the small country. In the wake of the Danish cartoon debacle, to use a quintessentially Danish emblem, the 3-dimensional Lego block, in a campaign to identify racism as a "different shape" from the 2-dimensional status quo, is to insult 5 million people with already sensitive skins.
Let's see. My opinion? The U.N. made a mistake. You'd think an organization would have "fact-checked" its props, especially for a widely published poster (multi-lingual, at that). It advertised a day that while largely uncelebrated (I mean, let's face it, shouldn't *every* day be International-Eliminate-Racism-Day?), is still publicized in the global community. SOMEone should have caught the Denmark-Lego connection, at least before the Danish did.
I do not think Lego is a racist company, though their concern with bad PR is understandable. Lego spokespeople made an interesting point, though; the U.N. has worked with Lego on refugee commission posters (pictured left)...why wouldn't they have informed the company in advance that they were printing more literature with the Lego mark on it?I still find it difficult to believe that someone in the graphic art world was taking a cheap shot at the people of Denmark. What would be the point of putting salt in such an open wound? Danish goods are being boycotted, and its citizens no longer enjoy their peaceful status in the international cast of characters. I can't believe that even the most staunch Muslim supporters within the UN would approve such a public slap in the face. No matter, soon after the posters were released, they were taken down from the website after plenty of complaints, and you'll only find it on a number of blogs and small feature articles in obscure European newspapers now.
There wasn't a ton of press about this -- likely because not many immediately associate Lego with Denmark -- but I think you do have to sympathize, in a way: all of this, because of some EDITORIAL cartoons in a newspaper circulated to no more than 3 million people, in a country that has finally put itself on the world map for something it would much rather have kept under the radar.
A good deal of blogging took place about the topic [no surprise there], a few days ago...I'm a little late, as it turns out:
* In support of Legos in UN campaigns
* Outrage [from an American] at the suggestion that this wasn't a pointed attack at the Danes (to get to the right entry, search "Lego" within the webpage
* If you can read Danish, click here for Politiken's report on Lego's outrage. (Note: Politiken is *not* the newspaper that published the cartoons.)
English Poster graphic taken from politiken.dk.
Arabic poster graphic taken from michellemalkin.com.
posted by brad board babe at 10:06 PM
2 Comments:
I don't know if it's a Scandinavian thing, but - of COURSE Lego as a company has every right to be upset! The poster shows a few pieces from a rather grey and anonymous puzzle, next to one lonely piece of red Lego. The attention is clearly drawn to the piece of Lego (it would perhaps have been a different matter if there were pieces of... um... other famous building blocks, like... anyway).
As regards the Lego-Denmark connection: Lego is OBVIOUSLY a Danish national symbol (hello? Legoland...?). In the light of the recent caricature decable, this can't be seen/misinterpreted as anything but an outright anti-Danish poster.
Regardless of what you think about Danes and Denmark in relation to the Mohammed-caricatures, one can't really say that the U.N. has made a sophisticated effort to carry out its main task, which - as we all know - is peacekeeping.
I think the most offensive thing about the campaign is the fact that it uses such a basic piece of Lego. I mean, everybody knows that newer, much more advanced sets of Lego such as BIONICLE (to be read with thundering voice) or EXO-FORCE completely shatter the idea of those old-school building blocks that the anti-western plotters in the U.N. are trying to perforate the minds of the young and innocent with. I mean, the new Legos are so cool they don't even look like crappy Legos anymore at all. Finally! But, as with the great conspiracy of the old lady with the fluoride rince in the school of olden days, if the U.N. has it's way, tens of thousands of small, helpless children will think that that dorky little block is all Lego amounts to these days... Won't somebody think of the children?!
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