Children learn through play and when they play with others, they learn more. They build emotional intelligence, an ability to be creative and a capacity to problem-solve. However, children’s lives are out of balance. As highlighted in DiG’s Free the kids campaign, children now spend less time outside than maximum security prisoners.
Unilever’s Dirt is Good (DiG) brand – known in the UK as Persil, in many other countries as OMO – has long championed kids’ learning through play – and getting dirty, especially outdoors.
The Free the Kids film sits alongside DiG’s ongoing sponsorship of Outdoor Classroom Day. It’s a global campaign to celebrate and inspire outdoor learning and play. On the day, thousands of schools around the world take lessons outdoors and prioritise playtime. In 2017, over 2 million children in over 100 countries took part.
That’s not all. Working with Edelman and world-renowned education and child development expert, Sir Ken Robinson, Unilever has established the Real Play Coalition – with the Lego Foundation, IKEA and National Geographic – to scale collective impact.