World Play Day

Who better to talk about play and why it matters than those who do it best, kids? No one, hands down. They see the world through a creative lens of possibility that professional marketers could only dream of. So, put simply, we served it up to kids to tell us why play is so important—and how powerful it can be.

The act of play is important. It gives us confidence, builds curiosity and imagination, helps us understand ourselves better—and most of all, allows us to have a little fun among the fracas and fraughtness. With play around the world under threat—shrinking, shriveling and becoming more siloed, among other things— the LEGO Group joined forces with a team of organizations and governments to push for a UN recognized International Day of Play with the ultimate goal of getting the world to take play more seriously. And in March 2024 they succeeded. A day just for play, if you will, was ratified by the United Nations. We were then tasked with helping to serve up a huge splash for its inaugural year.

We set out to make a short film that highlights the importance of play—that indomitable spirit and desire that seems to erode away as we grow older. It was also important to set up this brand push as a proper international UN recognized day with staying power. We brought in kids from a dazzlingly diverse group of backgrounds and asked them to build something out of LEGO bricks as a gift for the world for World Play Day. What they built was completely up to them. Want to make a car with seats that can give people hugs when they are sad? Perfect. A new kind of spider that’s never scary and instead of webs spins skyscrapers? Make it so. The point being, we wanted to highlight the magic of play by those who do it best, with the tools that work best, LEGO bricks—and with as few barriers as possible. Of course, the kids blew away even our highest expectations and were both impossibly creative and impossibly cute. We had conversations with them as they showed off what they made and talked to us about why play is important to them—interspersed with facts for the grownups about why play is essential. Cut downs and stills for social and support—and we were good to go for the first ever International Day of Play on June 11 this year. Buckle up and get set to play in a big way.