Lego threatened with boycott over year-old Pride Month campaign: ‘Stay mad, snowflakes’
Lego’s A to Z of Awesome marketing campaign was released last year and featured sets built by adult fans. (Lego)
Right-wingers have cried foul again, this time targeting Lego’s LGBTQ+ A-Z of Awesome campaign for Pride, after internet troll Oli London tweeted “Lego turns trans”.
Lego’s A-Z of Awesome, launched for Pride Month last year, is a community-centred social media project aiming to highlight LGBTQ+ voices.
Reposting an advert of the campaign on Twitter, London – possibly best-known for his various plastic surgery procedures to make him appear like BTS star Jimin – wrote: “Lego turns trans,” and implied that “transgender building sets for kids” were included.
A Lego spokesperson told PinkNews: “We have not released any LGBTQIA+ sets aimed at children. The A-Z of Awesome was a marketing campaign released last year, that featured sets built by our amazing adult fans. None of these sets are for sale.
“Lego play is for everyone and we are committed to building a [kinder], more empathetic and understanding society now and for future generations.”
London’s post has garnered more than 900 retweets, with many joining him in calling for the brand to be boycotted.
One person commented “adding to my #boycottlego collection of boycotts”, while others also called for the brand to be blacklisted.
“#GoWokeGoBroke” someone else commented, while another compared the brand to Target, which has faced violent threats towards staff over its Pride collection.
But some users jumped to Lego’s defence, with one tweeting: “Conservatives call us snowflakes then get triggered by Legos.”
Another wrote: “Stay mad ,snowflake.”
Lego’s A-Z of Awesome page highlights interviews with builders such as self-described Black, queer woman, Hope, from Boston, who has “dedicated her life” to supporting young LGBTQ+ people of colour, with her work paying “tribute to those themes of intersectionality”.
The brand announced in April that all of the A-Z of Awesome creations will be exhibited at its Legoland theme park in Denmark, from 24 May.
Lego’s first Pride range, Everyone is Awesome, was launched in May 2021. The range featured 11 figurines, all but one of which had no specific gender designation so as to “express individuality while remaining ambiguous”.
Following the launch, Fox News host Will Cain suggested it “could have been designed” by former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard David Duke.
In April this year, enraged conservative John K Amanchukwu Sr threw a temper tantrum after he saw some Lego store staff wearing rainbow pins.
His reaction resulted in him being criticised online with people on Twitter coming out in force to slam his video, with social media users pointing out that the staff were just doing their job.
Ever-growing list of brands the right have called to boycott
Lego joins an ever-growing list of brands the conservatives have demanded be boycotted, including, Nike, The North Face, Bud Light, Target , adidas and Starbucks.
Target has faced an onslaught of anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric over its Pride-themed collection, with its store across the US being attacked, forcing the supermarket chain to rearrange the placement of products.
On 24 May, The North Face announced it had teamed up with drag queen Pattie Gonia for its Summer of Pride.
The announcement saw social media users say they were adding the brand to the list of businesses they would no longer frequent.
The brand released a statement supporting their partnership with Gonia, adding that the “outdoors are for everyone”.
Meanwhile, Bud Light continues to face the fallout from its collaboration with Dylan Mulvaney following the beer brand giving the trans influencer a single can of their brew with her face on it.
Another household name to be face ring-wing wrath is adidas, with its Let Love Be Your Legacy collection for Pride 2023, supposedly guilty of “erasing women” and “gaslighting”.
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