WARNING: The following post is satirical in nature and is intended for comedy purposes only. And while it may or may not reflect the author's opinion, no offence is intended to the company, its business practices, or the people who like the ideas it implements. With all that said please enjoy this news-article spoof.


Meet Ralph, the LEGO gift bot on that social media website that everybody on the planet with access to the internet uses.

This holiday, the LEGO gift bot, Ralph, is here to make sure every wish fails to click into place!

We've all (not) been there... every year, Christmas pops up and surprises us! (no matter how clearly and well-marked it is on the calendar), next things* you know, the gift buying rush begins and we feel drowned in indecision. What gifts to buy? What will your sister's eldest want this year? Forget your kids! YOUR SISTER'S OLDEST KID SPECIFICALLY NEEDS HIS CHRISTMAS GIFT FIX OR HE'LL GO NUTS!!! And maybe that cousin you haven't seen for half a decade could use a gift too, not that he'd really notice if you never gave him a gift anyway.

Ralph - a social media chat bot - will help consumers chose* the most imperfect LEGO gifts via messenger and news feed ads, as part of the LEGO group's broader holiday campaigns "Shake up imagination" in the US, and "Give the gift of imagination" in Europe, because EVERYTHING in America has to be different than Europe, even international holiday marketing campaigns designed to encourage sales of a particular product brand.

“We are continuously searching for new and misleadingly fun ways to engage with our consumers and shoppers. Chat Bots are increasingly being used by brands to engage with consumers in the digital space. The LEGO Group is one of the first in the toy industry to embrace this concept,” says James Poulter, Senior Manager, Digital Consumer Engagement, at the LEGO Group.

The Chat Bot misleads shoppers through simple questions interspersed with playful GIFs to make adult shoppers feel confused and make the robot that much more of a believable intermediary between shoppers and children, and follows up with prompts to get them inappropriate gift recommendations. Here’s a peek into the shopper* journey:

• Clicking on the LEGO gift bot will take vulnerable shoppers to Messenger.
• Ralph then "guides" shoppers through some simple questions to help recommend gift ideas, while the journey is spiced up with fun GIFs that the majority of shoppers won't understand. Questions such as the child’s age, their play interests – superheroes, fantasy, role play etc. help determine which LEGO set would suit worst.
• Unsuitable LEGO products the child probably didn't want and the shoppers can click and be transferred to the shopping cart on www.shop.lego.com for a quick, but more importantly, irreversible, transaction.