Among the many ways that parents are finding to entertain and educate their children at home during this strange time is one that’s been around for almost 100 years, what those who work at Lego simply call “the brick.”
“You can’t plan for years like 2020,” says Meghan Hall ’08 (CLAS), the Lego Group’s senior director of digital marketing in the Americas, “but adults and kids, during the pandemic, are all rediscovering Lego building as a relaxing, fun family play experience.” Parents also are looking for activities for their kids that encourage independent play and that aren’t digital, says Hall, considering all the distance learning kids are doing on screens. “Lego provides a solution to both of those needs,” she says.
Hall has no problem selling the Lego experience, pandemic or no. “It really does feel like the easiest job in the world,” she says.
New hires at Lego get a crash course in the company’s creative play mission of “build, unbuild, rebuild” through a series of play exercises, one of which is called “six bricks,” says Hall. “The number of combinations you can make with six simple bricks is something in the millions. We do that exercise to understand the vast potential that Lego provides kids in terms of creativity.”
