The LEGO Group has released its new Play Is Your Superpower campaign featuring the brand’s first ever fully playable brand film, which celebrates the heroes that can emerge in a world that has forgotten how to play.
The LEGO Group’s new Play Is Your Superpower campaign has been created to encourage adults to prioritize play for the children in their lives. It will run for four months with three key moments: the fall launch, World Play Day on October 12th and during the brand’s peak holiday season.
Assembling Superpowered Talent
The film stars Hollywood actor Jane Lynch as a work-obsessed CEO who becomes enlightened to the merits of play by seeing its impact through the eyes of six adventurous children. Each child brings a different passion and skill to a mission to spread play in a monotonous, structured workplace. Superstar actress Sun Li takes on the role of the CEO in an adaption for families in China. The film takes viewers on a journey that highlights the power of play.
The film was directed by pioneering cinematographer, screenwriter and director Ellen Kuras, best known for her work on Academy Award winning Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
Director of Photography is Rachel Morrison, one of the first female directors of photography for a big budget superhero movie, Black Panther.
Female led production company The Corner Shop along with Kuras worked with set designer and art director David Lee, whose credits include Star Wars and Batman Begins. Kuras also partnered with new Irish post-production and VFX company GABHA Studio to complete the superpower ensemble team behind the film that takes viewers on a fun-filled journey that highlights the power of play.
Celebrating the Power of Play
The campaign draws its insights from a recent global study finding that, on average, children are spending just 2% of their week (equivalent to 7 hours) playing, with one in three (32%) spending less than three hours each week enjoying play. Comparatively, the average adult spends 26 hours a week scrolling on their smartphone, an average of more than 3.5 hours per day1. This current play deficit is a cause for concern for experts given the crucial role of play in shaping a child’s cognitive abilities, overall wellbeing and most importantly, in them having fun.
Supercharging Play
The film is fully playable and packed with easter eggs, allowing viewers to play along and interact on LEGO.com and LEGO Life app, where prompts on the site will encourage participation.
Families will also be encouraged to transform themselves into minifigures like the characters in the film and join a global squad of passionate play advocates on LEGO.com.
To launch the campaign, the LEGO Group has enlisted the help of a group of leading cultural figures who each attribute the skills developed through childhood play to helping make their dreams come true. The Play Squad, including Tan France, Naomi Watanabe, Bindi Irwin and Stephanie Beatriz, will share the unique superpowers that play has given them and why they believe it should be a priority for every child.
The LEGO Group and a range of playful digital creators will also be bringing play to unexpected places around the world and sharing inspiration on how to inject moments of playfulness into even the busiest of schedules ahead of, and on, World Play Day on 12th October 2023.