184
AdAptAtion in the Age of MediA ConvergenCe
logo until 2014, when the company announced that it would not renew its
marketing agreement with Shell under pressure from Greenpeace. 14
It seems safe to conclude, then, that LEGO is well aware that many potential customers freely and eagerly consume fossil fuel in multitudinous forms
including LEGO bricks, yet they might see the companies that extract and
distribute it as being evil. 15 In other words, by making fun of an industry with
which LEGO is complicit, the film offers a thinly veiled attempt to ensure
that consumers and viewers who are concerned about the environment
will continue to enjoy LEGO toys, the movie, and possibly the video games
or a trip to a LEGO Land.
This same in-film criticism is also applied to the neoliberal, highly diversified corporate model represented in The LEGO Movie, run by President
Business and his Micro-Managers. Key to President Business’ approach
to management is the constant use of Octan’s surveillance cameras to
ensure that everything be rigid and proceed according to the rules, hence
Emmet’s frequent objections that he cannot do anything that is “against the
instructions.” Yet while foregrounding corporate business models and the
kinds of generic, interchangeable worker subjectivities it shapes, the film
also features a hero whose very conformity ironically helps him to subvert
the oppressive order. Likewise, in spite of having a face that is so generic
that it matches every other face in the database and cannot be identified
by President Business’ surveillance cameras, Emmet nonetheless becomes
attached to the “Piece of Resistance” and is henceforth known as The Special.
Here again, by holding a business model very similar to that of LEGO up to
ridicule, along with the conventions of transmedial storytelling as a cynical
means of extending popular brands and storytelling franchises, LEGO and
the companies that produced the film have short-circuited a number of
possible critiques while increasing their viewer and fan base. 16 This layer
of irony makes it possible for viewers who might be critical of neoliberal
14 Alanna Petroff, “Lego ditches Shell after Arctic oil protests.” CNN. October 9, 2014: 8:07. Accessed March 1, 2016, http://money.cnn.com/2014/10/09/news/companies/lego-shell-greenpeace/
index.html.
15 It is perhaps worthy of note here that the LEGO Group is one of the world’s leading tire
manufacturers. “7 things you might not know about Lego,” CNN, accessed March 6, 2016, http://
edition.cnn.com/videos/showbiz/2014/02/17/orig-7-cool-things-about-lego-npr.cnn.
16 LEGO’s business model is a frequent topic of CNN feature stories, such as “Lego boss reads
The Opposable Mind” in which LEGO’s CEO, Jorgen Vig Knudstorp, explains how the company
attempts to incorporate or co-opt a variety of points of view and connect them, much as LEGO
bricks can potentially be combined in various configurations, to produce winning concepts.
“Lego posts 25% revenue jump, profits up 31%,” CNN, accessed March 1, 2016, http://edition.cnn.
com/search/?text=lego.
AdAptAtion in the Age of MediA ConvergenCe
logo until 2014, when the company announced that it would not renew its
marketing agreement with Shell under pressure from Greenpeace. 14
It seems safe to conclude, then, that LEGO is well aware that many potential customers freely and eagerly consume fossil fuel in multitudinous forms
including LEGO bricks, yet they might see the companies that extract and
distribute it as being evil. 15 In other words, by making fun of an industry with
which LEGO is complicit, the film offers a thinly veiled attempt to ensure
that consumers and viewers who are concerned about the environment
will continue to enjoy LEGO toys, the movie, and possibly the video games
or a trip to a LEGO Land.
This same in-film criticism is also applied to the neoliberal, highly diversified corporate model represented in The LEGO Movie, run by President
Business and his Micro-Managers. Key to President Business’ approach
to management is the constant use of Octan’s surveillance cameras to
ensure that everything be rigid and proceed according to the rules, hence
Emmet’s frequent objections that he cannot do anything that is “against the
instructions.” Yet while foregrounding corporate business models and the
kinds of generic, interchangeable worker subjectivities it shapes, the film
also features a hero whose very conformity ironically helps him to subvert
the oppressive order. Likewise, in spite of having a face that is so generic
that it matches every other face in the database and cannot be identified
by President Business’ surveillance cameras, Emmet nonetheless becomes
attached to the “Piece of Resistance” and is henceforth known as The Special.
Here again, by holding a business model very similar to that of LEGO up to
ridicule, along with the conventions of transmedial storytelling as a cynical
means of extending popular brands and storytelling franchises, LEGO and
the companies that produced the film have short-circuited a number of
possible critiques while increasing their viewer and fan base. 16 This layer
of irony makes it possible for viewers who might be critical of neoliberal
14 Alanna Petroff, “Lego ditches Shell after Arctic oil protests.” CNN. October 9, 2014: 8:07. Accessed March 1, 2016, http://money.cnn.com/2014/10/09/news/companies/lego-shell-greenpeace/
index.html.
15 It is perhaps worthy of note here that the LEGO Group is one of the world’s leading tire
manufacturers. “7 things you might not know about Lego,” CNN, accessed March 6, 2016, http://
edition.cnn.com/videos/showbiz/2014/02/17/orig-7-cool-things-about-lego-npr.cnn.
16 LEGO’s business model is a frequent topic of CNN feature stories, such as “Lego boss reads
The Opposable Mind” in which LEGO’s CEO, Jorgen Vig Knudstorp, explains how the company
attempts to incorporate or co-opt a variety of points of view and connect them, much as LEGO
bricks can potentially be combined in various configurations, to produce winning concepts.
“Lego posts 25% revenue jump, profits up 31%,” CNN, accessed March 1, 2016, http://edition.cnn.
com/search/?text=lego.