Rebuild the World: the 2019 launch

Read the campaign story

LEGO launched Rebuild the World on 17 September 2019, presenting creative play as a way to imagine different possibilities. The company’s announcement described a rabbit escaping an unlucky hunter through a world governed by the logic of LEGO toys. The LEGO Agency and BETC Paris developed the campaign, with Traktor directing the film. This study concerns that original launch, rather than later films carrying the same platform name.

The official launch also included creative workshops at LEGO House in Billund and an invitation to share constructions through LEGO Life. Contemporary coverage supplied by BETC documented the film’s television, cinema, outdoor and social rollout. The combination matters: the audience could watch imaginative transformation and then try making something themselves. These sources establish the activity and intended message, not an isolated effect on children’s skills or product sales.

Editorial reading: The central move is to dramatise the rules of the product rather than display its catalogue. A building system promises that one arrangement need not be final. Turning that promise into a chase gives each surprising transformation a reason to exist. The spectacle is not merely decoration around a familiar logo; it expresses what somebody can do with the thing being advertised.

This makes the work useful for brands whose value emerges through use. A musical instrument, design tool or cooking ingredient may be explained more persuasively by a sequence of possibilities than by a static inventory. The discipline is to keep the imaginative leap recognisably connected to actual product behaviour. When every surprise could belong to any entertainment brand, the demonstration loses its strategic purpose.

Participation then needs its own design. An invitation to be creative can feel intimidating when people think they must produce something impressive. A smaller team could offer an everyday object to reinterpret, a limited set of materials and permission to show unfinished attempts. The aim would be to make revision feel normal, rather than turn a playful proposition into a competition judged by professional standards.

The practical lesson is to connect promise, story and activity through the same action. First show how changing an arrangement changes its possibilities, then give people a manageable opportunity to try. Evaluate whether participants understand that action and want to repeat it. Claims about lasting educational benefits require separate evidence, and any activity involving children needs suitable consent, moderation and privacy protections.

Advertise the usable rule

Show what people can change with the product, rather than presenting a catalogue of finished outputs.

Lower the creative threshold

Give participants a narrow prompt and welcome revisions so that an open invitation does not become an intimidating contest.

Keep the demonstration recognisable

Make each imaginative transformation traceable to a real product capability or clearly identified fictional exaggeration.

A small test for another brief

Invite adults to reinterpret a familiar object using a small, fixed kit.

Assess capability recall, voluntary repeat attempts and qualified product interest.

Stop if participants infer unsupported learning outcomes or if consent and moderation cannot be provided.

• Choose a real product capability that permits several arrangements.
• Film one playful transformation with a clear product connection.
• Run an opt-in workshop and publish only explicitly consented submissions.