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As a result of a social media campaign, last week makers of the famous geek-popular toy highly sophisticated inter-locking brick system the Lego Group has stopped giving away polybags with print copies of the Daily Mail, something it has done for years in occasional promotions.
The Daily Mail is frequently criticised for its right-wing stance and critics often claim that many of the stories are either inaccurate or utterly fabricated, as the quote below from the " Stop Funding Hate" campaign shows:
While I disagree with their political stand I can accept their right to have it. But lately their headlines have gone beyond offering a right wing opinion. Headlines that do nothing but create distrust of foreigners, blame immigrants for everything, and as of yesterday are now having a go at top judges in the U.K. for being gay while making a legal judgment.
Another article from The Independent has more background.
Lego spokesperson Roar Rude Trangbaek told The Independent: "We spend a lot of time listening to what children have to say. And when parents and grandparents take the time to let us know how they feel, we always listen just as carefully.
"[...] The agreement with The Daily Mail has finished and we have no plans to run any promotional activity with the newspaper in the foreseeable future."
Other targets of "Stop Funding Hate" include John Lewis, Waitrose, and Marks & Spencer.
Is this a case of the liberal left shouting and screaming to enforce a kind of corporate self-censorship, or simply free markets and freedom of speech working together as they should?
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 19 2016, @04:21PM
I do not personally care for the Daily Mail or their politics. Without ad revenue it would cease to be a viable business, therefore it is an attempt to silence the newspaper.
As opposed to the ideologies and rhetoric they support by entering into partnerships with parties who deny the existence of the migrant rape endemic? [express.co.uk] The left leaning media largely ignore and downplay these stories, they claim the moral high ground but are actually complicit.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 19 2016, @04:44PM
They could ask their readers to pay for it. Or attract advertisers that match their editorial stance.
Being dependent on ad revenue from companies that consistently cannot (publicly) support their articles was the Daily Mail's business decision, blaming others to try to silence them when they chose a way to finance themselves that is not compatible with what they want to write seems rather funny to me.
A newspaper that wants to be able to write whatever it wants needs to find someone willing to pay them no matter what they write. There is no way to avoid that basic truth.
I also believe that to mean that anyone who wants an independent press should be paying at least one newspaper. And preferably one that empasizes more on publishing what is interesting to its readers than publishing what is convenient to them/matches their opinions.
(Score: 3, Informative) by n1 on Saturday November 19 2016, @04:53PM
The Daily Mail doesn't have the right to get advertisers just because it's had them before. People concerned can vote with their wallet, but using a tactic like this explains why they're not buying Lego, shopping in Waitrose or other companies.
If people just stop buying, the companies affected don't know what caused this, they can try and work it out for themselves, but it must be better to receive feedback from your customers than to just see dropping revenues and risk a correlation==causation error. Lego and Waitrose are not obligated to continue advertising in the Daily Mail if they perceive it is damaging the viability of their own business prospects.
I'd rather not head down the road of "they do it too" ... there's no moral high ground in the press in the UK, but as a non-partisan business who wants to make money, i'd rather be associated with more positive or constructively spun headlines -- regardless of accuracy, they're the journalists after all -- than fear and hate which is heavily promoted on the Mail's front page on a regular basis. Especially if i'm just trying to sell children's toys like Lego.
It depends on the product you're selling and the audience you're trying to capture, there are plenty of businesses who can do well from promotions with the daily mail... Life insurance, holidays, banking, kitchenware and household gadgets, 'medical' treatments and numerous other things have a fertile ground with the Daily Mail readership.
I would bet that the Lego partnership was probably helping the DM more than Lego.... People would buy the DM for the free Lego... People were not buying more Lego after seeing it in the DM.