Disgruntled conservative shoppers are adding LEGO to their list of brands to boycott after a social media influencer resurfaced a year-old Pride campaign from the toy maker, claiming it was “featuring transgender building sets for kids.”
“Children’s toy maker LEGO has released an LGBTQI+ range featuring transgender building sets for kids age 5+,” Oli London said in a tweet, according to Newsweek.
The British influencer — who previously identified as transracial, gender neutral and transgender, according to Newsweek — also made a reference to LEGO’s 2022 Pride campaign, titled “A-Z of Awesome,” which was “an alphabet of builds created by LGBTQIA+ LEGO fans,” LEGO’s promo video says rather than a specific build.
A LEGO spokesperson quickly shot down London’s claims as other major brands like Target and Bud Light suffer financial fallout from their LGBTQ campaigns.
“The information on Twitter is false. We have not released any LGBTQIA+ sets aimed at children. ‘A-Z of Awesome’ was a marketing campaign released last year that featured sets built by our amazing adult fans. None of these sets are for sale,” a LEGO spokesperson told The Post on Thursday.
LEGO shared the collection of unique builds created by fans in the LGBTQIA+ community via a Pinterest board. They depict scenes like a wedding with two grooms and a garden with flowers the color of the transgender flag.
The LEGO spokesperson said the Danish company, founded in 1932, ended 2022’s Pride campaign in April and details of this year’s are due soon.
London has since deleted his original post, but he shared another tweet with his more than 225,000 Twitter followers on Sunday, saying “LEGO wants your children to become TRANS!”
The post was accompanied by photos of the builds featured in the campaign. One shows an “LGBTQIA Center” with LEGO Pride flags while another shows a rainbow castle.
London goes on to claim that LEGO “wants to subconsciously influence your children with gender ideology each time they play with the building sets.”
His tweet sparked immediate outrage aimed at LEGO, with one user saying to “add them to the boycott list.”
Another user slammed LEGO for “going woke,” and used the hashtag “#GoWokeGoBroke.”
One Twitter user condemning LEGO shared a photo of its “Everyone is Awesome” set, which was released in honor of Pride Month in 2021 and is marketed for customers aged 18 and up on LEGO’s website.
“BOYCOTT LEGO WE MUST MAKE A STAND TO ALL COMPANIES WHO COME AFTER OUR CHILDREN! THE LIST IS GETTING LONGER,” the post says.
Another referenced the backlash brands like Bud Light, Target and North Face have been facing over their pro-LGBTQ marketing efforts with a tweet saying: “I swear these companies must be getting incentives from the Government to push this on kids. Why else would companies choose to get involved knowing parents won’t buy this stuff.”
The war over pro-LGBTQ marketing was triggered in early April when trans social media star Dylan Mulvaney shared a personalized Bud Light can with her face on it to celebrate her “365 Days of Girlhood.”
Calls to boycott Bud Light for its “woke” marketing have tanked sales of America’s most popular beer, resulting in a 25.7% plunge for the week ending May 20, according to Bump Williams Consulting and NielsonIQ data.
Target has also fallen victim to an ongoing 14-day boycott for promoting LGBTQ merchandise, especially “tuck-friendly” swimwear, ahead of Pride month.
The Minneapolis-based retailer’s stock has lost a whopping $13.8 billion over that two-week time period.
Shares of the embattled “cheap chic” chain sank 2% to $128.28 as of Thursday’s opening bell after dropping for eight straight sessions — the stock’s longest losing streak since November 2018 — giving the company a market capitalization of $60.4 billion.
North Face also faced calls for boycott over the popular outdoor clothing maker’s “Summer of Pride” ad starring drag queen Pattie Gonia.
Republican Congresswoman Lauren Boebert demanded shoppers “boycott ANY product North Face has ever made” on Twitter last week.
“Well, I guess North Face wanted to get a taste of what conservatives did to Bud Light and Target,” she added in the tweetstorm to her 2.5 million followers.
Most recently, Walmart has been called out for its Pride-themed clothes for infants that include onesies with sayings like “proud love,” “I love my 2 moms” and “love will win.”
In the adults section, T-shirts say “Some people are gay. Get over it,” “gay AF” and woke up gay again.”
Walmart also has a whole collection of LGBTQ-friendly trinkets and accessories as part of its “Pride & Joy” collection, which includes flags, pins, tote bags, clothes for dogs and more.
Latriece Watkins, Walmart’s Chief Merchandising Officer, said on Wednesday that Walmart won’t be making any changes to its LGBTQ-friendly merchandise in honor of Pride Month — even as rival Target has pulled some its Pride collection from stores in the face of customer backlash.
“We have merchandise that we sell all year that supports different groups,” Watkins said. “In this particular case, we haven’t changed anything in our assortment.”
This story originally appeared on NYPost
