Brickipedia News:LEGO apologies over Mixels controversy

User:CJC95 0:00, 10 June 2015 (UTC)

by CJC95
June 10, 2015

LEGO has apologised after describing a Mixels character as a "window-licker", a derogatory term for a mentally challenged person. Turg, part of the latest line of the theme, was described on the LEGO website as "part frog, part chicken, part back-of-the-bus window-licker". The statement caused outrage from mental health charities such as Mencap and Scope. LEGO were quick to change the offending statement. Fiona Wright, LEGO's vice-president for the UK and Ireland, apologised and said "We have looked at our processes to make sure this does not happen again."

via BBC Newsbeat
Tags: Mixels

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Comments (4)

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AwesomeknightBricktastic

116 months ago

Score -2

I guess they should have checked the original Brickipedia banned word list o realize that "windowlicker" is very, very mean/

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NovaHawkLegendary Brickipedian

116 months ago

Score 0

Can't say I've ever heard of "window-licker" in reference to mental health. Bad LEGO, don't you know you should check the 4000-page Encyclopedia of Obscure References That May Cause Offense before you publish anything at all online?

Look, this is obviously going to attract the hoards of dogooders with their pitchforks looking to persecute LEGO for such a shameful act of unforgivable immorality, and they'll harp on about it for ages. But here's what really happened- something was published, it caused offense, and I can see why it could legitimately cause offense in this way. But the right action was taken- it was removed immediately, and they apologised. There was obviously no evil intent behind it, and the vast majority of people wouldn't have been aware of it being used in that context. Noone's at fault here. Get over it already.

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CJCBricktastic

116 months ago

Score 0

Maybe it is because of how I just cut out the actual statements from charities, but they were before LEGO removed it - as in, they were statements before LEGO apologised, asking for it to be removed. Its worth noting that, as far as I know, they haven't responded since LEGO changed the description.

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NovaHawkLegendary Brickipedian

116 months ago

Score 0

Oh yeah I understood that, I'm just anticipating what's going to happen :P Probably not from the actual charities, just from people posting comments in forums and writing blogs, etc.

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