Kickstart: Lego finds itself with some unintended consequences

The protests focused on racial profiling and the police have reached out well beyond Minneapolis, and beyond streets and neighborhoods.

This week, both organizations and companies have issued statements calling for social justice and pledged to promote a more diverse future. And toy giant Lego A/S found itself unexpectedly caught up in a side controversy due to what it called a "misunderstanding."

The Danish maker of ABS bricks — like many other firms — posted its support for "the black community against racism and inquality" on Twitter on June 3. It also pledged $4 million to support education programs focused on teaching about racial inequality.

At the same time, it sent its marketing groups a letter asking them to halt all promotions on social media.

"We requested that our affiliate partners refrain from posting promotional Lego content as part of our decision to respect #BlackOutTuesday and pause posting content on our social media channels in response to the tragic events in the U.S." Lego said in a statement to the website ToyBook.com. "We regret any misunderstanding and will ensure that we are clearer about our intentions in the future."

While the move was intended to avoid potential controversial posts by halting all social media promotions, it instead was mistaken as a wholesale departure focused solely on police-themed characters, according to our sister publication Advertising Age. At that point, it provoked response from multiple sides of the controversy and the toymaker is still working to clarify its move.

"We've seen incorrect reports saying we've removed some Lego sets from sale," the toymaker posted on Twitter on June 4. "To be clear, that is not the case and reports otherwise are false. Our intention was to temporarily pause digital advertising in response to events in the U.S. We hope this clears things up."

Correspondent Stephen Downer brings this story about a Mexican custom injection molder that has just expanded in the U.S., buying a Tennessee plant that was slated to close.

The newly named PlastiExports Tennessee LLC began operating on June 1 as the U.S. subsidiary of PlastiExports SA de CV of Apodaca, Mexico. The plant expects to employ 125 people within months.

The Morrill Motors Inc. plant opened in 1946 and was a major employer for the town of 6,000. Now it is about to be the base of PlastiExports' U.S. expansion.

Finally, a personal note, on behalf of journalists everywhere to marketers.

Please, please, please. At some point in your press release or website, just say what it is your company does. I cannot tell you how many times I've seen something come across my desk that sounds like an interesting project, followed by me asking myself: "But is it a plastics company?"

And when I have to ask myself that, the chances of my following up on your email decreases with each click I have to make on a website in hopes of finding a simple answer.

Just yesterday, I came across one company whose description of what it does was "your partner for bringing critical new technology to the market." So ... you make things? Design things? Ship things? Provide materials that are used to make things?

No idea.

The story, by the way, was this one from Frank Esposito about firms making ventilators designed by JPL and NASA. We tracked down information on a couple of them, including an Ohio injection molder. If some of the others involved were plastics suppliers and we overlooked them, all I can say is ... we tried.