Progress Report 2012 - Lego

FOCUS
A question from UNICEF
Bo Viktor Nylund, Senior Advisor,
Corporate Social Responsibility,
Private Fundraising and Partnerships
Division, UNICEF:
You have introduced a product for
girls recently. It is very positive that the
report relates to concerns raised from
customers in this regard. But, how do
your products in general support equal
play and life opportunities for boys
and girls?
The LEGO Group:
We always aim to listen carefully to
our customers, and we introduced
LEGO ® Friends to add more choice for
children. Research shows that girls as
well as boys are interested in creative
construction play – historically, however,
we have failed to attract many girls.
We therefore invited some of these girls
to tell us what would be an interesting
setting for them, if they were to play with
construction toys – the development of
LEGO ® Friends was the direct result of
this participatory process.
We aim to include as many children
as possible in construction play, and
are therefore pleased to have reached
even more children, mostly girls, this
time. The road is now open for them to
discover other of our diverse products,
all available for children of both sexes
– we know that e.g. Harry Potter and
LEGO ® City have been very popular
among girls.
Boundaries for marketing to children
Knowing as much as we do about children and
play can present us with a dilemma when trying
to influence children to wish for a LEGO ® product.
We do our utmost to communicate the genuine
play experience children can expect from a LEGO ®
product. However, when communicating with children,
we are sensitive to the fact that children may
perceive marketing messages differently from adults.
In 2012 we reviewed our internal principles and
our corporate standard on marketing to children
together with key internal marketers. Our support
in 2012 to Media Smart, a UK originated Media
Literacy Programme, led to the development of the
‘Digital Adwise Parent Pack’ to help parents and
children identify and understand the adverts and
commercial material they collectively encounter in
the online world. You can find the material at
http://www.mediasmart.org.uk/
Overall we work actively to ensure that our marketing
is conducted responsibly and lives up to our
stakeholders’ expectations. An example would
be how we work to integrate the Children’s Rights
and Business Principles no. 6 ‘Use marketing and
advertising with respect and support children’s
rights’ in our daily marketing approach.
Outside the LEGO Group
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