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Lego’s 1981 Ad Campaign

joshsummers.co.uk

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Re: Lego’s 1981 Ad Campaign

#71

Post by olavk »

pavlov wrote: post #2

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 When your Legos are branded as "Chima", "Bionicle", "Ninjago", "Marvel(tm) Super Heroes" or "Disney(r) Star Wars(tm)", it's expected that you…

Sets without any associated storyline or franchise still exist as the "Creator"-series, and seem to be quite popular.

Re: Lego’s 1981 Ad Campaign

#72

Post by prof_hobart »

robbiep wrote: post #56

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 reali…

There's a lot of different kits out there, but you can still buy big buckets of just Lego, such as http://www.amazon.co.uk/LEGO-6177-Basic-Bricks-Deluxe/dp/B00...

Re: Lego’s 1981 Ad Campaign

#73

Post by Marazan »

olavk wrote: post #71
pavlov wrote: post #2

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 When your Legos are branded as "Chima", "Bionicle", "Ninjago", "Marvel(tm) Super Heroes" or "Disney(r) Star Wars(tm)", it's expected that you…

Sets without any associated storyline or franchise still exist as the "Creator"-series, and seem to be quite popular.

The Creator series are the absolute best bang for buck line they produce. In general they are 3-in-1 kits and they have lots of interesting blocks.

Re: Lego’s 1981 Ad Campaign

#74

Post by zeusk »

legoisbest wrote: post #33
agumonkey wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

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.

I grew up in India during the 90s when Lego had no proper establishment here. There was a very similar kit called 'mechanix' which I fondly remember to date. Would surely recommend still if can't find Lego or on budget.

Re: Lego’s 1981 Ad Campaign

#75

Post by PJDK »

johntaitorg wrote: post #38

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.

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.

Re: Lego’s 1981 Ad Campaign

#76

Post by ps4fanboy »

pavlov wrote: post #15
ps4fanboy wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe if sales for these things werent so high they wouldnt have done it, whose fault is it really Lego or the consumer? I certainly dont want companies deciding for me.

You don't want companies to decide what products you buy? How does that work? I mean, you can only buy something if they'll sell it...

More to the point people argue these genderised versions of lego are bad, and that lego shouldn't sell them, deciding to not sell a product because of that and not consumer demand is an example of how a company can decide for its consumers.

Re: Lego’s 1981 Ad Campaign

#77

Post by Flimm »

duncanawoods wrote: post #64
corin_ wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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 indivi…

I have no idea why anyone would downvote this.

Re: Lego’s 1981 Ad Campaign

#78

Post by Rambunctious »

olavk wrote: post #55

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 i…

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.

Re: Lego’s 1981 Ad Campaign

#79

Post by kristiandupont »

legoisbest wrote: post #33
agumonkey wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

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.

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.
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