Article 17 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (United Nations, 1989) recognises the role of the media in disseminating information to children. It establishes the State’s obligation to take measures to protect them from information and material injurious to their well-being.
In this context, the Gymkhana #Nom’hompasso [I don’t swallow it] took place, aiming at reflecting on food advertising and how it can negatively affect our eating habits. The gymkhana proposed a series of playful tests to encourage critical thinking. Some of them were:
- Ball-swallowing: in this “human ball-swallowing” activity, the children had to collect various messages about misleading advertising and evaluate them.
- Lies to the ground: through a bowling game, the children were tasked with deciphering a hidden message about misleading advertising.
- Label catcher: the traditional “catch the flag” game served to raise children’s awareness of the importance of fairer labelling.
- Re-benchmark yourself: the last activity consisted of an evaluation and vote on food consumption and advertising, after having worked on all the material and content of the other activities.
Together with the collective action and the reading of the No m’ho empasso! [I don’t swallow it!] manifesto, this activity involved the participation of 78 schools and 40 educational leisure spaces, with some participating 18,000 children and young people.
