Inclusive advertising Lego

[littlebillie]

Just spotted this on Twitter from 1981. Inclusive and refreshing advertising - respect to Lego for this

Send your respect back to the 80s before they started releasing ‘Lego Friends’ sets with poorer quality, specifically female, characters all wrapped up in pink and purple boxes 🤮

What a great ad.

Brilliant ad: when we thought things would change! How could we have predicted this shit show!

I wonder if there are any recent ads that are similar, for anything.

Take a look at their website today. Stonewall champions now.

@Monicuddle

Send your respect back to the 80s before they started releasing ‘Lego Friends’ sets with poorer quality, specifically female, characters all wrapped up in pink and purple boxes 🤮

I have to agree.

I feel like lego has lost its way compared to how I remember it (as a child of the 80s). Back in my day it was all about multi coloured monstrosities like the one delightfully displayed in this advert. Now it is all about adhering to the instructions and building the set. Don't even get me started on bloody lego friends.

It was unisex and they went and changed it. Why lego?! Why?!

Compare and contrast to todays Guardian.

www.lego.com/en-gb/page/everyone-is-awesome?icmp=LP-SHH-Standard-Rainbow_Article_HB_Std_Everyone_are_Awesome-TH-NO-181DADIKTD

@littlebillie

Just spotted this on Twitter from 1981. Inclusive and refreshing advertising - respect to Lego for this

Why respect to Lego? Most advertising was similar back then. If they were using that advert now I'd applaud them for it. But they're not.

Lego friends developed from other 'girls' Lego sets in the 80s and 90s. Seems to have got pinker over time.

bricktasticblog.com/blog/vintage-lego-homemaker-review/

Clothes were certainly less pink back then. They didn't make specific "girls jeans" with flowers embroidered on them and stretch fabric. I didn't ever buy my DD's Lego friends either, they had boxes of bricks, one is now an engineer

I feel the need to defend Lego friends. It has huge amounts of fairgrounds rides, safari adventures, robots, garages. Some girls like pink, others green or blue.

I watched a documentary about Lego and they said that the number of girls playing with it now it far higher than it used to be, in large part because they start with Lego Friends. So while we may all have played with normal Lego, we may have been unusual. For that reason I approve of it

@Lowhum

Take a look at their website today. Stonewall champions now.

I was going to say exactly the same. I could have cried when I saw it.

There’s no need.

@motogogo

Clothes were certainly less pink back then. They didn't make specific "girls jeans" with flowers embroidered on them and stretch fabric. I didn't ever buy my DD's Lego friends either, they had boxes of bricks, one is now an engineer

I never wore pink as a child. I don’t think it was ever even offered and I really hated it anyway.

@Mollyollydolly

Compare and contrast to todays Guardian.

Literally came on to post this image.

The only gendered character is the one with a bee hive who is a man (drag queen)

Lego friends is more detailed and tends to have more wildlife themes. Hidden side is also good. Lego elves was amazing. Personally, I find city very bland and not terribly imaginative.
It’s important not to be biased against things because they are designed for females.

It can only be Marie Wilson (or Amy Winehouse). Queens aren’t fit to carry their hairspray...

@bigkidsdidit

I watched a documentary about Lego and they said that the number of girls playing with it now it far higher than it used to be, in large part because they start with Lego Friends. So while we may all have played with normal Lego, we may have been unusual. For that reason I approve of it

How could we have been unusual? And how the hell did they keep tabs on who was playing with it back then to make comparisons, when there wasn't any aimed specifically at girls??

Did anyone see the fallout over this on FB last night?

@Nellodee

I feel the need to defend Lego friends. It has huge amounts of fairgrounds rides, safari adventures, robots, garages. Some girls like pink, others green or blue.

Some of the lego friends sets are fantastic. But I've had to take out and bin the figures. They look emaciated next to normal lego people.

I'm very regressive and I don't dictate to my kids that the long hair is for the girl figures and the blue tops are for the boy figures etc. We've currently got a very mixed set of characters going on.

Pink is just a colour. Being negative about pink things just makes it a lesser colour.
Looking at the Friends set DDs are currently building the predominant colour actually appears to be Turquoise.

The funny people are annoying though. At 7yo my DD asked why the people needed to be different...

We have City, Friends, Dots, Harry Potter, Ideas, Architecture, Creator, Jurassic Park... All types really.

It’s not just how they market Lego friends to girls that’s the problem, but also how they market violence, aggression and construction specifically to boys.

They have veered so far from their original ethos and brand name but it makes them lots and lots of money.

Lego Friends has been one of the most successful themes Lego have created. They did years of research so what they went with obviously showed that's what consumers want.
The Friends range doesn't come in pink boxes and never has.
Friends is 100% compatible and the same scale as the ranges such as City and Ninjago etc. Compared to their previous 'girls' ranges - Homemaker, Belville, Scala, Clikits which were compatible (all Lego is compatible) but not the same scale.
Lego Friends is a fantastic theme.

@Monicuddle

Send your respect back to the 80s before they started releasing ‘Lego Friends’ sets with poorer quality, specifically female, characters all wrapped up in pink and purple boxes 🤮

All of this!!