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Lego’s 1981 Ad Campaign

joshsummers.co.uk

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Re: Lego’s 1981 Ad Campaign

#81

Post by hvidgaard »

legoisbest wrote: post #17
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…

This does crop up all the time. You should also mention though that Lego still make and sell a lot of universal building sets. In Lego stores there are walls of bricks where you can select any bits you want. Yes, there has been a big rise in themed and licensed sets, and yes, some of them have specialised building parts that you can only really use in the set. But that's just part of the trend over the last few decad…

If I remember correctly, LEGO was in a bit of a financial crisis not long ago, and as a way to deal with it was more focus on LEGO based on existing and popular franchises. That said, you just take pull the sets apart and children being children will build things, just as they always have.

Re: Lego’s 1981 Ad Campaign

#82

Post by TeMPOraL »

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…

That's quite an interesting way to put what I always considered to be immoral behaviour of the companies, exploiting lack of experience and short attention span of children combined with the love of their parents.

Re: Lego’s 1981 Ad Campaign

#83

Post by soneca »

facepalm wrote: post #26

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).

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

Re: Lego’s 1981 Ad Campaign

#84

Post by aleem »

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…

The bricks are available as lego buckets http://shop.lego.com/en-US/LEGO-Creative-Bucket-10662

Ages 4-99.

They have discontinued the pneumatic line which is a shame because it required no batteries and I grokked pneumatics because of it--the pneumatic pump had a one-way valve as I recall it allowing air to push through. I was maybe 8 at the time.

Re: Lego’s 1981 Ad Campaign

#85

Post by fit2rule »

robbiep wrote: post #62
Jgrubb wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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

My kids got a big box of Lego Technic (the kind you make robots with) in their very early years - 2/3. The box has been an absolute joy for them, and now the eldest (7) is using it to build robots. Finally.

Plus the joy of watching them figure out that you can use old Lego with new Lego is fantastic. Principles to live by!

Re: Lego’s 1981 Ad Campaign

#86

Post by DanBC »

Jgrubb wrote: post #70
robbiep wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

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.

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-Classic-10698-Large-Creative/dp...

Re: Lego’s 1981 Ad Campaign

#87

Post by facepalm »

DanBC wrote: post #68
corin_ wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What makes blue more boy-specific than guns are, objectively? For whatever reasons, whether through child instincts or society, both are generally preferred by boys over girls.

The pictures of only boys on the blue boxes and the pictures of only girls on the pink boxes is something that needs to be considered. I don't care if more boys buy guns and more girls buy toy horses. I do care if those toys are packaged in rigidly gendered packaging and stocked in gendered sections of the toy store.

I recently saw Nerf guns for girls in the store. While my children are not yet of Nerf gun age, I think the Nerf gun for girls might significantly increase the odds that one day I'll be able to have Nerf battles with her. So yay for that.

I would probably first try with a "normal" Nerf gun, but if that doesn't stick, why not try the girl variant.

Re: Lego’s 1981 Ad Campaign

#88

Post by jameshart »

aleem wrote: post #84
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…

The bricks are available as lego buckets http://shop.lego.com/en-US/LEGO-Creative-Bucket-10662 Ages 4-99. They have discontinued the pneumatic line which is a shame because it required no batteries and I grokked pneumatics because of it--the pneumatic pump had a one-way valve as I recall it allowing air to push through. I was maybe 8 at the time.

Why do people make these assertions about Lego that are patently untrue? No, lego doesn't 'only come in kits'; and kits have pretty much always been available. Here's a comprehensive takedown of the meme: http://bigsalsbrickblog.blogspot.com/2014/08/it-was-all-basi...

Similarly, where do you get the idea that pneumatics have been dropped? They were on a hiatus, but are now back and still going strong. http://brickset.com/sets/theme-Technic/tag-Pneumatic shows 28 sets, one of which is currently available from Lego direct, and at least two more of which are still available retail. The 2015 Technic flagship model - the Mercedes Arocs truck - will have new pneumatic elements.

Re: Lego’s 1981 Ad Campaign

#89

Post by aleem »

jameshart wrote: post #88
aleem wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The bricks are available as lego buckets http://shop.lego.com/en-US/LEGO-Creative-Bucket-10662 Ages 4-99. They have discontinued the pneumatic line which is a shame because it required no batteries and I grokked pneumatics because of it--the pneumatic pump had a one-way valve as I recall it allowing air to push through. I was maybe 8 at the time.

Why do people make these assertions about Lego that are patently untrue? No, lego doesn't 'only come in kits'; and kits have pretty much always been available. Here's a comprehensive takedown of the meme: http://bigsalsbrickblog.blogspot.com/2014/08/it-was-all-basi... Similarly, where do you get the idea that pneumatics have been dropped? They were on a hiatus, but are now back and still going strong. http://brickset…

I checked in UK and was unable to find it. More recently came across this http://bricks.stackexchange.com/questions/939/which-sets-cur...

Awesome to know I can still get it, ordering one for my son via UK if I can find it.

Re: Lego’s 1981 Ad Campaign

#90

Post by warkid »

ptaipale wrote: post #42
the_mitsuhiko wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What comes first, the desire for gendered products or the gendered products? Apparently the desire. Toddlers pick gendered products on their own (for some forms of them). There was some studies about this behavior.

Well, if the toddlers can pick, the gendered products were there first. But it is true that kids even make gendered toys out of practically nothing. For instance, a local kindergarten here: three-year-old boys were forbidden to have toy guns. So the kids took some flat crispbread at the midday meal and chewed edges off to make it gun-shaped, and then started playing cops and robbers. Bang bang.

I wonder how did they pick that "cops and robbers" game in the first place...
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