Sesame Street has launched a new global multimedia campaign around the idea of instilling kindness.
Spread Kindness #ShareTheLaughter includes a year of kindness-themed episodes for the HBO/PBS KIDS series’ 47th season, which bowed last month. There will also be new and classic kindness-themed songs released on the brand’s social media channels.
The episodes will aim to teach kids how to be a better friend, the importance of giving and how to be thankful.
Sesame Workshop’s K is for Kindness national tour kicked off last month in New York, and this summer Elmo will launch an online #ShareTheLaughter tell-a-joke challenge asking fans to tell their friends kind riddles.
Sesame’s initiative comes as kindness-themed content and campaigns continue to ramp up in the kids space—especially as children are becoming more tolerant and understanding than ever before, according to a Nick study of Gen Z.
Other brands have started to take note, too, with UK-based Coolabi and Hasbro both debuting kindness– themed campaigns last year. Scholastic, meanwhile, recently predicted that kindness would be one of the top children’s book trends in 2017.