How Sportacus Got Children to Go Outside and Play

Magnus SchevingLook what was in today’s NY Times.

Except for the muscles rippling under his form-fitting dress shirt, Magnus Scheving at first glance bears little resemblance to Sportacus, the hyperactive, health-promoting hero he plays in the international hit children’s television program “LazyTown.”

Unlike Sportacus, Mr. Scheving does not have a thin black mustache that juts out as if he had recently been electrocuted. He does not reside in a dirigible in the sky. He does not have a ski hat-cum-nightcap permanently affixed to his head.

But both he and his alter ego are devoted to a single, impassioned cause: getting couch potato-prone children to exercise, eat good food and generally lead healthier lives. And somehow Mr. Scheving, the creator and chief executive of the vast entertainment and licensing company known as LazyTown Entertainment, has become one of Iceland’s best-known figures and biggest exports, a sui generis hybrid of Jack LaLanne and Richard Branson.

This is who I worked for in Iceland. You can read the rest of the article about Magnus at the NY Times website.

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1 thought on “How Sportacus Got Children to Go Outside and Play”

  1. My favorite line in the article was …and never walks into a room when he can just as easily do a double flip through the window.

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