Lego Persuasive Techniques

When massive oil giant Shell released plans to start drilling in the Arctic, an environmental protection group, Greenpeace, began lobbying against them on basis of environmental grounds as this plan had the real possibility of severely harming the entire Arctic ecosystem by exacerbating the melting of the ice caps and releasing toxins into the environment that would be difficult to clean (“The Dangers”). Ultimately they won by attacking Shell’s highly-credible and well-liked partner, Lego, in hopes that if Lego would turn against them, so would Lego’s supporters. The advertisement Greenpeace created for this purpose was the emotionally-striking piece, “Everything is Not Awesome,” whose development team was particularly successful in creating an effective advertisement supporting their campaign because of their use of popular music and characters, the irony in the chosen soundtrack compared to its original and the connection to the new theme, and the contrast of colors and shapes throughout each scene.

Several popular and universally known elements were used to help the advertisement appeal to a wider audience such as The Lego Movie’s song “Everything is Awesome,” the appearance of the heroes of well-liked media like the heroes of The Lego Movie and
To contrast this the set is then flooded with a sticky, black mess of oil, causing a reaction of disgust and fear in the audience and heightening the advertisement’s effectiveness by the use of pathos – Aristotle’s Appeal of using strong emotions to sway an argument. The message this gives the audience is quite clear by creating a visual of floods made of their cause. Drilling in the Arctic will contribute directly to the melting of the Northern icecap and the ultimate flooding that would follow due to an increase in the volume of the