OMO Australia has teamed up with Arsenal Football Club to support ‘It Starts Outside’, a global campaign from Unilever’s Dirt Is Good platform, which celebrates the power and joy of getting outside in childhood.

As part of this, Arsenal and Australian footballers Kyra Cooney-Cross, Steph Catley, and Caitlin Foord are showing their support for the campaign, alongside Australian professional athletes, Chloe Dalton OAM and Ashleigh Gardner.

Dirt Is Good is built on the philosophy that children need the freedom to explore, get messy, and play outdoors to reach their full potential. Through its partnership with Arsenal Women’s Football Club, It Starts Outside has brought this to life by championing the importance of outdoor play in improving children’s mental wellbeing. For OMO, this belief is backed by “superior” cleaning performance, which the brand says gives parents the confidence to say yes to mess, knowing no stain is too tough to handle.

In Australia, new research highlights a decline in outdoor play and a clear gender gap emerging early in life. More than eight in 10 surveyed parents (83%) say they wish their school-aged children played outside more, while 78% believe kids today are experiencing less outdoor play than previous generations. Within this broader shift, a disparity is already evident: while more than half of the parents of boys aged four to 11 (57%) say their sons play freely outside more than three days a week, fewer than half of girls’ parents (45%) say the same of their daughters.

Through its local activation of It Starts Outside, OMO says it’s working to challenge perceptions around girls and outdoor play, encouraging parents and caregivers to embrace the developmental benefits of a more active, and messier, childhood.

“Through It Starts Outside in partnership with Arsenal Women’s Football Club, we want to highlight the long-term value of outdoor play,” says OMO Head of Marketing Kate Westgate.

“Normalising the idea of getting dirty, at the heart of our Dirt Is Good platform, is key to supporting the development of the next generation of Australian talent.”

The campaign will be supported across social platforms celebrating “real” childhood moments of play.