Greenpeace takes a page from Chipotle's marketing playbook—haunting animation plus a distressing cover of a well-known song—in its continuing assault on Lego for partnering with Shell on a set of Shell-branded Lego products.
Attacking a beloved brand like Lego isn't easy. But if you're going to do it, you need to do it right. And this spot, showing a Lego version of the Arctic drowning in a sea of oil, is incredibly well made by creative agency Don't Panic—which, you'll remember, also did the memorable Save the Children ad that brought the Syrian war to London.
The visuals in the Greenpeace spot are beautiful, and the ethereal cover of "Everything Is Awesome," from The Lego Movie, is the perfectly ironic backdrop. Yes, it is angering people (check out the YouTube comments if you're looking for a grand old time), but Greenpeace is rarely interested in making friends as it pursues its enemies.
You can debate whether Lego was right to partner with Shell—here is Greenpeace's point of view, and here is Lego's reply to the attack ad. But as a pure PR play, "Everything Is NOT Awesome" (which has topped 1 million views since Tuesday) is itself pretty awesome.