Lego lent its brand to Shell for 50 years — a £68m deal a viral video undid in weeks

For about fifty years, since the 1960s, Lego had run a co-promotion with Shell: Shell-branded Lego sets sold at petrol stations. The current deal, begun in 2011, was worth £68 million and put Lego toys in Shell stations across 26 countries.

In 2014 Greenpeace, campaigning against Shell's Arctic oil drilling, went after the softer of the two partners. It released a parody Lego video, 'Everything is not awesome,' showing a pristine Arctic built from 120 kilograms of Lego being flooded with oil; it drew about 5.9 million views. Activists dressed as Lego figures staged a demonstration at Legoland Windsor.

On 9 October 2014 Lego said it would not renew the contract when it expired. Chief executive Jørgen Vig Knudstorp complained that the Lego brand 'should never have become part of this dispute between Greenpeace and Shell' and criticised the campaign's tactics — but the deal was ending regardless.

Lego's grievance was the lesson. By lending a children's brand to an oil company, Lego had guaranteed it would be the pressure point in any fight over Shell. The brand's trust was the asset Shell was renting; when activists came for it, Lego had to choose between the partner and the reputation, and let a half-century deal lapse.

Lego let the deal lapse after a Greenpeace video with 5.9m views made the brand the pressure point in Shell's Arctic dispute.

A co-promotion rents out a brand's trust; Shell was borrowing the goodwill parents feel toward Lego, so any attack on Shell could reach Lego as well

Of the two partners, Lego had the softer, more beloved reputation — the rational target for a campaign that wanted maximum public sympathy

The deal's value (£68m, 26 countries) was measured in sales, not in the reputational risk it imported; the risk only became visible once the video went viral

Lego's own response — that it should never have been part of the dispute — concedes the point: co-branding made the dispute inevitable

A co-branding deal lends your brand's trust to your partner's risks. Lego was the softer name, so a campaign aimed at Shell landed on a children's toy — the only exit was a 50-year deal.