Why is Shell's PR team quietly removing details about its deal with LEGO?

The internet is a funny thing. Earlier today I innocently posted a link to a video about how valuable Shell’s deal with LEGO is. 

According to @irisworldwide, LEGO’s promo deal with Shell is one of the biggest in the company’s history #BlockShell https://t.co/oePl7x3Ja7

— James Turner (@jamesturn) July 10, 2014

Moments later, the video was made private by Shell’s PR company. Why would they want to deprive us of the details of a deal which the video calls “one of the biggest co-promotions in LEGO history”?

So I tried again.

Aw, @irisworldwide just unlisted their video about the LEGO/Shell deal from YouTube. Luckily it’s here on Vimeo too: http://t.co/uU7TZdrtWv

— James Turner (@jamesturn) July 10, 2014

And yet again, the video was removed just moments after I tweeted. Either this was a massive coincidence, or Shell’s PR people have decided to start hiding the scale of the company’s deal with the world’s most popular toy company. 

Thankfully, we held on to a copy and have reuploaded the video for your viewing pleasure. You can see it at the top of this blog.

So why all the secrecy? Could it be something to do with the 300,000 people who have signed the petition to end the deal? Or perhaps it’s down to the viral video smash which shows the consequences of an oil spill in a wondrous Arctic LEGOland? 

It’s easy to see why Shell’s PR team feels awkward. Lines like: “Children can strongly influence their parents behaviour” aren’t things that this family friendly company wants to make public. Similarly, they’d probably rather we didn’t dwell on the fact that this deal has delivered a “Global PR value equal to $116m”.

The sad fact is that Shell gets so much more from this deal than LEGO does. From access to children, to association with LEGO’s creative brand, to the immensely important ‘social license to operate’ that oil companies are starting to value so highly. Through this partnership, Shell finds its way into playgrounds, car seats, trains and imaginations, where their brand is seen as a safe, normal and unavoidable part of modern life. It is not. It cannot be, if we are to deal with the huge threat that global warming poses to us and our kids. 

We’re asking LEGO to square the circle between its values and the companies it chooses to endorse. It’s that simple. We’re confident that when they look at this carefully, LEGO’s executives will realise that Royal Dutch Shell – with its reckless Arctic drilling plans and tendency towards secrecy – is simply not the right fit for a progressive, modern brand.

James Turner is the head of communications for Greenpeace International’s Arctic campaign.