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Did Lego Pull Products Featuring Police and Rescue Workers?
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The Dispatch Fact Check

Did Lego Pull Products Featuring Police and Rescue Workers?

No.

Alec Dent
Jun 4, 2020
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On Thursday, Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale accused the Lego Group of “erasing cops” by pulling products that feature police, along with the White House set.

Twitter avatar for @parscaleBrad Parscale @parscale
This is nuts. @LEGO_Group is removing playsets featuring police, firefighters & emergency vehicles. Even ditching an adult White House kit. We ought to stress the good in law enforcement for kids. What does @JoeBiden think about LEGO erasing cops?
LEGO Pulls Back Police Playset Affiliate Marketing Amid George Floyd Protests (Updated) • The Toy BookOriginally published on June 2, 2020. Updated with clarification statement from LEGO June 3, 3:45 p.m. Last updated June 4, 12:13 p.m. The tragic death of George Floyd while being restrained by police in Minneapolis sparked major protests all over the country, and today we’re seeing the first impact…toybook.com

June 4th 2020

3,676 Retweets5,286 Likes

Similar claims were made by other Twitter users, including DeAnna Lorraine, a Republican who ran in the top-two primary election for the seat currently held by Speaker Nancy Pelosi:

Twitter avatar for @DeAnna4CongressDeAnna Lorraine 🇺🇸 @DeAnna4Congress
Now LEGOS are removing all of their LEGO pieces with Police officers, firefighters etc! And watch Obama's "Reinventing POLICING" webinar he did today: This is INSANE & dangerous. They are systematically wiping our history and creating a new future for us
LEGO Pulls Back Police Playset Affiliate Marketing Amid George Floyd Protests (Updated) • The Toy BookOriginally published on June 2, 2020. Updated with clarification statement from LEGO June 3, 3:45 p.m. Last updated June 4, 12:13 p.m. The tragic death of George Floyd while being restrained by police in Minneapolis sparked major protests all over the country, and today we’re seeing the first impact…tinyurl.com

June 3rd 2020

938 Retweets1,276 Likes
Twitter avatar for @theepictheymerMae says BLM ✿ @theepictheymer
HOLY SHIT LEGO DONATED 4 MILLION TO BLACK CHARITIES AND THEY PULLED ALL LEGO POLICE SETS FROM THE SHELVES

June 3rd 2020

190,078 Retweets987,004 Likes

The basis for these claims is an article—linked to in several of the tweets—from The Toy Book, a toy industry trade magazine, about an email the Lego Group sent to affiliate marketers on Tuesday. The email asked for products featuring police and other emergency response services “to be removed from sites and any marketing ASAP.” As Parscale mentioned in his tweet, Lego’s White House play set was also included in the list of products.

It’s easy to see how the Lego statement, with language like “removed from sites,” could be confusing. But affiliate marketers don’t stock actual products. Rather, they are publishers who partner either directly with retailers like Amazon or with affiliate networks like Rakuten Linkshare (with whom Lego works) that work with many retailers and service providers. Major publishers, food bloggers, and others include links to products in their work, and they get a kickback when a reader clicks through and makes a purchase. Lego was asking its affiliate partners to remove links to its products.

The Toy Book updated its piece to include a statement from Lego clarifying that the company had asked affiliates not to promote the products in question. And this update occurred before all of the aforementioned tweets.

“We did not pull product from shelves, rather paused digital marketing activity as a well-intended gesture to show sensitivity for the tragic events in the US,” Michael McNally, Lego’s senior director of brand relations, told The Dispatch Fact Check. “Generations of children have loved playing with the sets in our LEGO CITY line that is a constant in our collection. Given the tragic events in the US over the past 10 days, we paused digital marketing of sets that could be perceived insensitive if promoted at this time.”

The products are still listed for sale on Lego’s website and Lego posted a statement on Twitter Thursday afternoon.

Twitter avatar for @LEGO_GroupLEGO @LEGO_Group
We’ve seen incorrect reports saying we’ve removed some LEGO sets from sale. To be clear, that is not the case and reports otherwise are false. Our intention was to temporarily pause digital advertising in response to events in the US. We hope this clears things up. ♥️

June 4th 2020

729 Retweets5,374 Likes

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Not Jonah Goldberg
Jun 5, 2020

I appreciate where the LEGO company is coming from. I don’t think the advertising change is meant to send a message but, instead, just a company purposely avoiding being political. I feel like conservatives should understand a company trying to stay in their lane and just make toys.

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Merrijane
Jun 4, 2020

Kind of still sends the same message, though. I don’t see why they felt the need to do this except that they were trying to draw attention to themselves for their wonderful sensitivity, not sparing anyone’s feelings.

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