Lego Research Paper

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Lego’s were originally made as a tool to promote creativity in children, and prompt children to use their time creatively and constructively. Currently LEGO still advertises their products as instruments of creativity. Since their creation however, Lego’s have embraced commercialization, and mass media, departing from their more interchangeable building blocks to more specialized pieces and directions; which is not only hindering the original goal of promoting creativity but it is also bringing the consumer world into simple creative play for children, neither of which is a particularly good thing. It is important to recognize that even well-meaning products like Lego are absolutely corruptible by corporate interest, and parents and consumers …show more content…

Systematic creativity is a particular form of creativity that combines logic and reasoning with playfulness and imagination.” Dictionary.com says creativity is “the ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns, relationships, or the like, and to create meaningful new ideas, forms, methods, interpretations, etc.” The question is, how can children “transcend traditional ideas and patterns” when LEGO has modified their building brick sales tactics to include specific instructions and patterns to follow. Now the “systematic creativity” lego.com describes is the whole idea behind LEGO bricks. LEGO states in their mission statement “Our ultimate purpose is to inspire and develop children to think creatively, reason systematically and release their potential to shape their own future.” The key word here being creatively, so what has changed since the humble beginnings as a small carpentry shop, that made stepladders, ironing-boards and oh yeah wood toys? In her essay “What’s Natural about Our Natural Products?” Sarah Federman introduces the idea that “[t]he word ‘natural’ has become more a marketing ploy than a way to communicate meaningful information about a product” (442). Truthfully the word “natural” and “creativity” have a lot in common in their respective context; just as the word “natural” has become a ploy to increase sales in the food industry; the toy industry uses the word “creative” to sell their products and profit off the mass-media. Well it didn’t take long after becoming a multinational company to buy into the complete consumer experience and

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