TP Toys has long been renowned for its ongoing mission ‘Freedom to Play’ – in a bid to get children out and about, and involved in creative, active play. Our recent research conducted amongst parents and children highlighted how little time children are spending outdoors, as well as the need to educate parents on its importance. Astonishingly, over a third of parents surveyed admitted that their kids spend less than 2 hours playing outside on an average weekend day.
In contrast, 98% of the children interviewed said that their favourite activity is playing in the garden, despite the small amount of time that they actually spend in it. When asked what they liked most about being outside, nearly half of the children answered ‘running about freely’, emphasising the need for parents to get kids out and about and promote their natural instinct to be free.
Entering the competition is a very simple process. TP are not looking for a professional modelling image, nor is this a competition for the best photography. All that TP ask is that applicants capture TP’s mission - ‘freedom to play’ in one simple shot and upload it to the TP website tptoys.com. The image of the child must be taken outdoors and demonstrate their interpretation of having fun; applicants can use TP equipment within the actual photograph or any outdoor toys to convey the message. To accompany the picture, hopefuls must describe in no more than 100 words why they think it is important for children to play outside.
A spokesman for TP explained the idea behind the new competition:
"From climbing frames to trampolines, giant swing sets to sandpits, 10ft pools and slides, there isn’t anything that TP hasn’t thought of when it comes to outdoor play. So if you feel as though your child knows the key to having fun outside, why not capture the moment and share it with us."
The competition begins at the start of March, and each week a number of entrants will be selected at random and uploaded onto the tptoys.com website. TP Toys will be selecting one winner from each of the following 9 regions (Midlands, North East, North West, Scotland, South East, South West, Wales, Northern Ireland and Eire) and will announce the results during week commencing 30th June. Each regional winner will be uploaded onto the site for the voting to begin, which gives applicants two weeks in which to spread the word in order to get friends and family voting for their little one as much as possible.
The photo with the most votes on the 18th July will be ‘Framed as TP’s Fresh Face of 2009’. The eight regional winners will each be awarded their ‘ideal toy’ but the overall winner will take away £1,000 worth of TP products of their choice instead. In addition they will be invited along to a professional photo shoot to have their picture taken for the catalogue. The winner will also be presented with a framed copy of the front cover shot as a memento. The deadline for entries is Friday 20th June.