
Lego’s 1981 Ad Campaign - FailMore
http://joshsummers.co.uk/2015/02/16/Lego-1981-Beautiful-Advert/
======
robbiep
Lego. The toy of my childhood.

My brother, sister and myself are the youngest of our cousins, and ended up
inheriting all their Lego.

We had a whole verandah (grew up in Australia in the country) filled with our
Lego city.

It became all encompassing. We had no close neighbors(nearest was 6 km away)
and no console until the n64 was old so it was Lego or helping Dad on the
farm.

We had the most detailed alternate reality you could imagine. Characters,
occupations, a little economy (each of us had a primary character . And then
all their accessory characters, and we would have a million dollars... Learned
a lot about closed economies from that little experiment!) We made cheque
books with little bits of carbon paper, and would reconcile the transactions.

We would start a 6 month long session by determining the rules- is space
allowed? Western? Only one character? Combine with the train set for
transport?) And then play out until our 'dump' of all the remaining pieces was
left with nothing but the rejects... Then tear down our civilisation, rub of
the chalk Marks from the floorboards that laid out the streets (we only had
for pieces of road and they were all corners!)

I dislike that Lego only comes in kits now... The glory of Lego was in getting
a massive rub of pieces and doing whatever you dreamt up out of it. We had a
Lego police station and helicopter and a restraint, and they were great
centerpieces, but the beauty of our playtime was that it was a creative effort
of the the of us. Through out we learned/discovered economics, banking, made
mini newspapers, the rules of society... I ever created my first computer
program in vb so we could do our bank statements on it.

So much love for Lego. Maybe Minecraft fills a similar role in today's kids?

~~~
Jgrubb
No, Lego still does. Mine just discovered them this past Christmas. They'll
build them 5 times in a row and then trade with each other so they can build a
new one.

I tell ya, as much as I remember loving Legos when I was a kid, there is
absolutely nothing as cool as building them with your own kids. Also, they
still sell those big boxes of random pieces. I think it's called the "Classic"
line or something like that.

~~~
robbiep
That's awesome to know. Still a while away for me but it's on the 'looking
forward to' list!

~~~
Jgrubb
It's pretty great, my house is occasionally quiet for the first time in years
because they're all at the table building something. It's also pretty evident
(to me) in this thread that the folks who are moaning about how Legos suck now
probably are not the ones with kids.

~~~
DanBC
I have a kid.

Lego Friends sucks. The gendering of Lego sucks. The relentless specialist
themed sets sucks. The move towards many small fiddly pieces and some
specialist pieces to create a Lego-thing sort of sucks.

Luckily I can ignore all of that and buy Lego Creative or Lego Classic.

[http://www.amazon.co.uk/LEGO-10681-Creative-Building-
Cube/dp...](http://www.amazon.co.uk/LEGO-10681-Creative-Building-
Cube/dp/B00GWG763U/)

[http://www.amazon.co.uk/LEGO-Classic-10698-Large-
Creative/dp...](http://www.amazon.co.uk/LEGO-Classic-10698-Large-
Creative/dp/B00PY3EYQO/)

~~~
specialist
Mid '90s, I worked at a toy startup. We studied Lego, PlayMobile, K'NEX, etc.
Mfg, mktg, distribution, etc. Play tested everything. Conferences, networking,
etc.

My understanding is gendering of Lego in the US sucks. It's cultural. The EU
doesn't have a pink stigma.

Also, Lego made bank with the themed sets. First with the western (cowboy)
then with Star Wars sets. I think some (not all) of them are awesome. Lego's
made plenty of stinker sets. They really had little choice. Their target age
market was being squeezed from both ends, "learning toys" on one side, video
games on the other.

I don't care what child has which toys (boys with dolls, girls with
bulldozers, vice versa) so long as they're playing, learning.

Overall, that experience made me a toy snob. +1 to Lego/Duplo, Lil' Tikes, and
misc reading books. Most other toys suck.

Except magnets. Magnets are always cool.

~~~
snuxoll
> Overall, that experience made me a toy snob. +1 to Lego/Duplo, Lil' Tikes,
> and misc reading books. Most other toys suck.

As a parent of a 2 1/2 year old I couldn't agree more. We went to Toys 'r' Us
to do some Christmas shopping last year and I was absolutely appalled to see
the place. Aisles weren't organized by age, or the general "types" of toys,
instead they had entire aisles dedicated to specific brands or media
franchises.

An entire two aisles of Frozen toys, another for Cars, then all the Hot Wheels
(okay, I might give this one a pass), so on and so forth. And really, all of
these things were junk, just generic dolls or little specialized playsets.

Somedays I look into my daughters room and wonder if maybe it's a little
sparse, I've got a big bucket of Lego Duplo, some alphabet blocks, a play
kitchen with a bunch of Melissa and Doug items in it, some dress up clothes
and a couple other age appropriate toys. But every time I realize that she has
plenty of things to play with, and she's always doing neat and new things with
everything she has.

She had me help her make a train car out of her Lego over the weekend, it was
just a basic "box" that was 6x4x4 with an open top, and she started cramming
her stuffed animals and Little People into it and going around the room
shouting "choo choo".

Meanwhile, every other kid I see that has these toys from big media franchises
just plays out or extends the universe they already know from the movies or
shows. I think we really need a return to the basics with toys for our
children, watching my daughter explore and create is much more enjoyable than
watching the other kids act out their favorite scenes from Frozen again.

------
pavlov
Both the product and the ad are highly representative of '70s Nordic social
ethics and aesthetics. A single product line called "Universal Building Sets"
is an almost Platonic ideal of democratic creativity.

Today's Lego has 33 product lines: [http://www.lego.com/en-
us/products](http://www.lego.com/en-us/products)

When your Legos are branded as "Chima", "Bionicle", "Ninjago", "Marvel(tm)
Super Heroes" or "Disney(r) Star Wars(tm)", it's expected that you play within
the existing marketeer-created universe. Less blank canvas, more coloring book
with product placement.

~~~
agumonkey
They had no choice, the "univeral building blocks" patent ended not long ago,
facing competition now, they had to find sustainable cash flow.

~~~
legoisbest
The competition is terrible though. Have you tried assembling any other
"compatible" building set?

The bricks aren't finished properly, some just pop off, and it all falls to
bits easily.

I'd say the nearest competition to Lego is probably 60% the quality of Lego.

~~~
kristiandupont
Lego is expensive. As a former employee, I've heard this complaint many, many
times. The thing that people don't realize (because hey, it's just plastic) is
that Lego is really really high quality. Getting the right stickiness requires
very high precision in those little bricks. Also, if like me you have Legos
from your childhood you will probably notice that they last long.

~~~
xanderstrike
The quality really cannot be understated, they last forever. When I was
growing up, my brother and I had a mix of "modern" (early 90s) kits and my
dad's legos he had growing up in 1950s and 60s Germany. Now my cousins' kids
have inherited both and are mixing them with 2010s kits. The 50 year old
blocks fit precisely with the blocks made in the past year, and when you throw
them all in a bin together you can hardly tell the difference.

It's rare to think of a toy that you can play with as "heirloom quality," but
I have no doubt my kids will inherit a portion of the family set when it
becomes time, and their kids just might too.

------
olavk
A subtlety which is not mentioned in the article: Why do we like the ad?
Because it it targeted towards grownups! This is due to the understanding in
the Lego company at the time, that parents decided what to buy for their
children. Therefore ads where aimed towards parents, explaining how Lego help
the kids develop and learn and so on.

But better market analysis later showed that it was a mistaken belief.
Actually it is kids that decide what they want, and parent oblige. Therefore
Lego does not make this kind of ads anymore. They make marketing directly
towards the consumers: The kids.

~~~
Rambunctious
While it may be the case that kids these days demand and get the kind of toys
they want, it is also the case (at least in certain cultures) that parents
obsess a lot on what kind of toys make their kids 'smarter', 'happier', etc.

So, Lego could look at ads that target parents in some of their markets.

~~~
facepalm
You think? Maybe they would hire you as a marketing consultant, because they
probably never got round to thinking about that kind of thing. Not sure if
"marketing" is even a thing in socialist countries like Denmark.

~~~
icebraining
Denmark is not a socialist country, and they certainly have marketers,
especially in multinational companies like Lego. In fact, their current CMO
held the same position at Revlon before joining them.

~~~
lione
I think this is the point where someone is supposed to say whoosh. The person
above was being sarcastic.

~~~
icebraining
I considered that option, but the comment history pushed me in the other
direction. I plead Poe's law.

------
jackgavigan
Original HuffPost article (from over a year ago):
[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/17/lego-
ad-1981_n_4617...](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/17/lego-
ad-1981_n_4617704.html)

Someone tracked down the little girl in the ad:
[http://www.womenyoushouldknow.net/little-girl-1981-lego-
ad-g...](http://www.womenyoushouldknow.net/little-girl-1981-lego-ad-grown-
shes-got-something-say/)

------
duncanawoods

        recent studies have proven that praising a child’s 
        effort over the childs acheivements is the correct way   
        to raise a little person that will do well
    

I think this claim is mistaken. The article backs the claim up with a link
which discusses something different: whether to praise effort or praise
attributes of the person e.g. "you are so smart!". Praising achievement is a
third category of praise where consequences are assessed and not personal
qualities.

I'm confident that positive and negative feedback about achievement are
incredibly important moreso than acknowledging effort. Praising the attributes
of a person is clearly just flattery so I don't know why anyone would do it or
need a study to point it out.

Were you to praise effort and not assess achievement, you will train people to
look like they are working hard rather than actually achieving anything and
not give them the feedback that will help them truly excel.

~~~
corin_
I don't have sources but I'm sure I've read studies against praising
achievement. I'm sure if combined well with praising effort it can work well,
but it should be a way of helping judge effort, not praised for and of itself.
For example if a child constantly gets Bs in a certain subject then getting an
A can be an indicator that they've put more effort in - but the A itself
shouldn't be the reason for the praise.

~~~
duncanawoods
Yep, effort\achievement shouldn't be considered as independent. What I do
think is important is to kill dead this notion that achievement is not a
necessary consideration for how to praise. For example:

I would be cautious about praising:

i) High effort but low performance due to repeating mistakes that have been
pointed out before.

ii) Low effort but high performance due to luck or the task being easy for the
individual.

I would find it important to praise:

i) Low effort but improved performance due to a change in behaviour e.g.
learning from previous experience.

ii) High effort but low performance due to how novel or ambitiously
challenging the task is for the individual.

~~~
Flimm
I have no idea why anyone would downvote this.

------
zeeshanm
The cool thing about legos is you get instant gratification for building
stuff. My 2-year-old nephew was building with legos the other day and you know
what he said after he finished building: "moma." He was so happy he wanted to
go show his mom what he had built. Isn't that beautiful?

~~~
tree_of_item
Maybe he wanted you to secure space for his creation at
[http://www.moma.org/](http://www.moma.org/) ? At least he's modest.

~~~
zeeshanm
Probably an oversight on my part not to think of this ;-)

------
hpaavola
Back when we were kids there was only one type of Lego, the type that was
meant for everybody. Now they have their own line for girls, Lego Friends. And
Lego Friends is just stupid
[http://seasonaldepressioncomic.com/2014/12/06/lego-
friends/](http://seasonaldepressioncomic.com/2014/12/06/lego-friends/)

~~~
ps4fanboy
What comes first, the desire for gendered products or the gendered products?

~~~
oneeyedpigeon
The former is a generalisation, a trend that every right-minded thinker
accepts. Deriving the latter from that, unfortunately, leads to a restriction.
Witness the beauty of the free market which caters to the mass-appeal middle
of the road, ignoring the beautiful anomalies at the edges.

~~~
blfr
There are plenty of niche products on the market, from microbrews to eco-
friendly dog accessories, whole specialty stores. Even more so now that you
can order online.

And you can have things custom made. For items like suits or furniture it's
not that much more expensive than quality pre-made lines.

------
facepalm
Congratulations for making such a great effort in writing that article!

(Whenever I see the praise effort, not achievement meme I make it a point to
praise the effort, not the achievement).

~~~
soneca
Well, the effort here is not that great. He took an existing ad and gave his
opinion on it. Not much research or else.

~~~
jboons
Why are you comparing the effort of an opinion article to that of a research
article? That's not how this concept works.

------
mxfh
For a historical perspective, LEGO's gender policy in advertising and product
development seemed to swing around every 5 Years or so in the 70s.

[http://thinkingbrickly.blogspot.de/2012/01/lego-gender-
gap.h...](http://thinkingbrickly.blogspot.de/2012/01/lego-gender-gap.html)

Compare this to the still great and gender encompassingly written, but still
clearly gendered approch from '74 to introduce the _homemaker_ line:

[http://helpemptymyattic.co.uk/vintage-lego-little-girls-
thin...](http://helpemptymyattic.co.uk/vintage-lego-little-girls-think-big-
leaflet-catalogue-1974)

[http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemPic.asp?C=c74ukhom](http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemPic.asp?C=c74ukhom)

funnily enough the now internet famous introductory text was always cited out
of it's context:

[http://io9.com/these-lego-instructions-from-1974-are-
awesome...](http://io9.com/these-lego-instructions-from-1974-are-awesome-and-
yes-1662169567)

There was another version other of the same year clearly aimed at boys (sorry
only dutch version here). [1] Correction, its actually quite generic and very
inclusive/neutral compared to the 1976 UK version [2]

[1a]
[http://www.bricklink.com/catalogList.asp?q=97875](http://www.bricklink.com/catalogList.asp?q=97875)

[1b] [http://worldbricks.com/fr/my-
instructions/download/file.html...](http://worldbricks.com/fr/my-
instructions/download/file.html?fid=87.4017) [pdf]

[2][http://worldbricks.com/en/my-
instructions/download/file.html...](http://worldbricks.com/en/my-
instructions/download/file.html?fid=87.4025) [pdf]

~~~
JoeAltmaier
Sorry don't read Dutch but the pictures aren't 'aimed at boys' in any way at
all. Unless you're projecting your own prejudices - trains and trucks are only
for boys? Explain!

~~~
mxfh
Sorry messed that up, you're right that the '74 builder catalog was very
inclusive/generic but somehow the '76 one overshadowed this already in my
memory (similiar models, strictly for lads).

[http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?C=c76uk](http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?C=c76uk)

[http://worldbricks.com/en/my-
instructions/download/file.html...](http://worldbricks.com/en/my-
instructions/download/file.html?fid=87.4025) [PDF]

Yet the '74 _homemaker_ one is clearly aimed at girls, and only mentions boys
in the foreword. [http://helpemptymyattic.co.uk/vintage-lego-little-girls-
thin...](http://helpemptymyattic.co.uk/vintage-lego-little-girls-think-big-
leaflet-catalogue-1974)

My point is LEGO had quite the on/off approach with gender in their
advertising for decades already, and yes I like the 1981 one.

------
72deluxe
I used to enjoy looking at the Lego brochures simply for the scenes they'd
planned out and the things that were happening in them, like accidents, cars
swerving etc.

I really wanted a Lego trainset but never had one; I did however have the
house, a hospital, a racing track, a police station, the docks/port, a mid
1980s spaceship (with "Benny" out of the Lego film), Robin Hood's hideaway, a
Napoleonic era series of figures with a rowing boat (can't remember if we had
the actual giant boat), a castle of some sort (got the cannons). My brother
and I had many many days of happiness building and playing with Lego.

I also had some horses. I have my characters somewhere but I think my mum gave
away all of it to my nephew, who can only build from instructions, not from
imagination. Hopefully he'll learn to do that.

------
lazyant
Comments and picture of the girl as a grownup
[http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/girl-famous-1981-lego-ad-
has-f...](http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/girl-famous-1981-lego-ad-has-few-
things-say-about-todays-gendered-toys-155795)

------
shalmanese
"What happened with Legos, they used to be simple. Oh come on, I know you know
what I'm talking about, Legos were simple. Something happened out here while I
was inside. Harry Potter Legos, Star Wars Legos, complicated kits, tiny little
blocks. I mean I'm not saying its bad I just wanna know what happened."

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVCOAFKjaoY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVCOAFKjaoY)

~~~
facepalm
I'm glad that there are complicated kits to choose from. Sadly my kids don't
stay two years old forever.

------
singold
What I find interesting in old magazine ads like this, is how much text they
have, today probably no one would read all that text on an ad

~~~
FailMore
Read Ogilvy on Advertising - makes you think all the (non copy filled) adverts
of today are crazy. Copy works.

------
RodericDay
Anita Sarkeesian has a great couple of videos on Lego's transition from
advertising like this, to advertising in a heavily gendered way.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrmRxGLn0Bk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrmRxGLn0Bk)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oe65EGkB9kA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oe65EGkB9kA)

~~~
facepalm
Yeah she has hit a very simple scheme to create her videos: pick some
selection that has an arbitrary bias of her choice. Claim on video that "all
of x" has said bias. (Another way to describe it would be "anecdotal
evidence").

So in a video she would show only gendered Lego, omitting all the non-gendered
Lego. Or she shows only video games with scantily clad women, omitting the
context (might be portrayed as despicable to mistreat a woman in the video
game, but taken out of context you may only see that a women is mistreated in
the game), and omitting the zillions of video games that have nothing to do
with women or gender at all. That way she "proves" that Lego is sexist and
video games are sexist, and I don't know what else (haven't watched all her
drivel).

People apparently believe anything that is presented on film.

------
johntaitorg
Lego is now only a 3D jigsaw puzzle, sadly.

Lego Classic has just arrived in the UK but it seems a half-hearted piece of
mummery to me.

~~~
PJDK
I hear this a lot. Was I the only kid who would build what ever was on the box
first, play with that for a day - break it and then have it all go into a big
box?

And all the funny bits people moan about make excellent space lasers.

~~~
wvenable
As a kid, I always found the big box of bricks boring. The sets had all the
cool pieces (and still do) and, like you, I'd build what's on the box
initially but not long after those pieces just went into the pile to build
other cool things.

------
agumonkey
Reminds me of that article saw on HN [https://medium.com/matter/the-man-who-
destroyed-americas-ego...](https://medium.com/matter/the-man-who-destroyed-
americas-ego-94d214257b5)

That "discover how you're special" mindset seemed to be a socio-academic
theory of the times.

------
sfjailbird
The copy is a play on the first thing an adult would say to the girl: "What is
it?"

"What it is, is beautiful."

------
Jean-Philipe
FWIW, Lego still does sell generic sets today. I just got one for my kids.
Stop crying about the good old times already. I can't wait for my kids to grow
up so I can buy them Mindstorm :)

------
aerique
Awesome, I recently handed down that 744 set to my son and build the truck on
the cover with him.

------
joteichmann
This is a brilliant kind of emotional branding! Chapeau!

~~~
blumkvist
Check this out

[http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/files/blogger2wp/watch....](http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/files/blogger2wp/watch.jpg)

