Lego is getting a father figure.
The toy company is rolling out a stay-at-home dad figurine — complete with jeans, a red plaid shirt and a scruffy beard — as it continues to create characters that “mirror the world we live in today.” To ensure that the dad isn’t confused for just a blogger from Brooklyn, Lego is pairing it with a working mom wearing a Hillary Clinton-esque pantsuit.
Lego points to the growing number of stay-at-home dads out there: Pew Research pegs the figure at 2 million three years ago — more than double since 1989. Still significantly less than the 10.4 million stay-at-moms, Lego is clearly attempting to mirror the cultural landscape as it evolves.
“We need to stay in tune with the world around us,” Soren Torp Laursen, Lego’s president, told Fortune. “We aren’t responding to demand from anyone. We are trying to portray the world around us and listen to our consumer base.”
Toward that end, Lego has also recently released a kid in a wheelchair, along with a guide dog, as part of the City Line that will include the new parent figurines. The disabled Lego marked a landmark moment in toy manufacturing world when it was released late last month: The little guy won praise for the fact that, although there are 150 million children with disabilities worldwide, few have ever seen themselves positively represented in the toys they play with.
For his part, the new stay-at-home dad is also earning applause online. Though for some, the dad dude looks a little too … hip:
Hipster stay-at-home Dad at #LEGO #toyfair2016 pic.twitter.com/AzlsWWfCy9
— Leah Rumack (@leahrumack) February 21, 2016
Another person suggested that all it’s missing is a man bun. That, and a green juice.
More in Marketing
WTF is the CMA — the Competition and Markets Authority
Why does the CMA’s opinion on Google’s Privacy Sandbox matter so much? Stick around to uncover why.
Marketing Briefing: How the ‘proliferation of boycotting’ has marketers working understand the real harm of brand blockades
While the reasons for the boycotts vary, there’s a recognition among marketers now that a brand boycott could happen regardless of their efforts – and for reasons outside of marketing and advertising – that will need to be dealt with.
Temu’s ad blitz exposes DTC turmoil: decoding the turbulent terrain
DTC marketers are pointing fingers at Temu, attributing the sharp surge in advertising costs across Meta’s ad platforms to its ad dollars.