Trump Campaign Manager Falsely Accuses Lego of Pulling Police, White House Sets Even After Lego Confirms Claim Is Not True

Sarah RumpfJun 4th, 2020, 8:49 pm
 

Brad Parscale

Brad Parscale, President Donald Trump’s campaign manager, accused the LEGO company of pulling toy sets from shelves that feature police, firefighters, and first responders, as well as the White House set. But it’s not true, and despite LEGO’s official Twitter account sending Parscale the correct information, he still has not deleted his Tweet or posted corrected information.

Parscale’s tweet was posted shortly after 8:00 am EDT Thursday, where he called it “nuts” that LEGO was “removing playsets featuring police, firefighters & emergency vehicles,” and “[e]ven ditching an adult White House kit.”

He also tagged former Vice President Joe Biden, Trump’s presumptive opponent in the November presidential election, in the tweet, demanding to know what Biden thought about “LEGO erasing cops.”

Just under two hours later, at 10:14 a.m. EDT, LEGO responded directly to Parscale’s tweet, stating that they were not removing any LEGO sets from sale, and any reports otherwise were false.

A few hours later, LEGO added an additional tweet, clarifying the “incorrect reports” about sets being removed from sale. “Our intention was to temporarily pause digital advertising in response to events in the US.”

As The Dispatch Fact Check reported, LEGO had sent an email to their “affiliate marketers,” the online publishers who distribute digital advertising content for companies and ad networks. No products or sets were removed from shelves or online sales, LEGO just did not want to run online ads promoting certain sets while the headlines on many of those websites featured stories about the George Floyd protests and the Trump administration.

“We did not pull product from shelves,” explained Michael McNally, LEGO’s senior director of brand relations, “Given the tragic events in the US over the past 10 days, we paused digital marketing of sets that could be perceived insensitive if promoted at this time.”

LEGO’s decision here is a very common strategy during trending news moments. Most brands do not wish for their products and reputation to be connected to highly divisive stories or topics, especially when there is a political angle. Paid promotional ads are particularly risky, because of the desire to avoid looking as if the company is trying to profit from tragedy.

Accordingly, it’s understandable that LEGO would not want one of their police sets promoted alongside an article discussing the murder charges against Derek Chauvin and the other officers implicated in Floyd’s killing, or their White House set inside a story discussing protesters being cleared out in front of the White House for Trump’s controversial photo op in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church.

At the time this article was being written, Parscale had still not deleted his tweet or posted any corrections. The Dispatch noted that Parscale, like many of the Twitter users who condemned LEGO, posted their criticisms by linking to a story at The Toy Book, a toy industry media outlet — but did so after The Toy Book had already updated their article to clarify that LEGO was pausing digital ads, not pulling product from shelves.

Breitbart News made the same mistake as Parscale, posting an article which slammed LEGO for “corporate virtue-signaling.” Breitbart later updated the article, with an editor’s note at the end indicating that it “has been updated to clarify that the company asked retailers to pull promotional materials for these products, not actually take merchandise off their shelves.” Nonetheless, Breitbart still tweeted the article with the original, incorrect, information on Thursday evening.

The screenshot of the Breitbart tweet shows the outdated information in the article description and the original title as well, all saying that LEGO had asked retailers to “pull some play figures from store shelves”:

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Sarah Rumpf - Contributing Editor

Sarah Rumpf joined Mediaite in 2020 and is a Contributing Editor focusing on politics, law, and the media. A native Floridian, Sarah attended the University of Florida, graduating with a double major in Political Science and German, and earned her Juris Doctor, cum laude, from the UF College of Law. Sarah's writing has been featured at National Review, The Daily Beast, Reason, Law&Crime, Independent Journal Review, Texas Monthly, The Capitolist, Breitbart Texas, Townhall, RedState, The Orlando Sentinel, and the Austin-American Statesman, and her political commentary has led to appearances on television, radio, and podcast programs across the globe. Follow Sarah on Threads, Twitter, and Bluesky.