Lego ends Daily Mail links amid campaign to boycott papers with 'divisive' Brexit headlines
Lego has said it has "no plans" for future free giveaways in The Daily Mail following a campaign calling on advertisers to boycott newspapers that promoted "demonisation and division" during the Brexit debate.
In response to a letter by a consumer concerned about the commercial relationship, the toy company said: "Our agreement with The Daily Mail has finished, and we have no plans to run any promotional activity with the newspaper in the foreseeable future."
In the letter, which went viral on Facebook, father Bob Jones said The Daily Mail's headlines created a "distrust of foreigners", and that he felt uncomfortable buying Lego products for his son after the tie-up.
Mr Jones ended his letter with the hashtag #StopFundingHate, which is the name of the campaigning group that has called for advertisers to cease their relationships with the Mail, The Sun and The Express because of the papers' stance on the referendum.
A Daily Mail spokesperson confirmed the end of the commercial agreement, but did not address the boycott campaign.
The move was welcomed by Gary Lineker, who has spoken out against The Sun after describing the media treatment of young migrants arriving in the UK as "hideously racist".
In 2014, Lego ended its relationship with Shell after a Greenpeace video drew attention to the oil company's plans to drill in the Arctic.
The Danish company had declined to confirm if the termination was in response to Greenpeace's campaign.