Specsavers offers people $200m for their eyes to prove value of eyesight
Specsavers has set up a fake clinic which offered visitors millions of dollars in exchange for their eyeballs to test how emotionally connected people are to their sight.
People’s emotional reactions – including teary insistence that “I need my eyes” and “You can’t really put a price on your sight” – were then compiled into a campaign via Cummins & Partners.
The ad moves away from the more light-hearted “Should’ve gone to Specsavers” – which has become the brand’s default humorous tag line in ads which show people making embarrassing mistakes when encumbered by poor eye sight – and instead concludes with “Your eyes are priceless”.
Cummins & Partners said Specsavers went to great lengths to pull off the confronting campaign, including constructing a high-tech facility in a CBD office tower from scratch, complete with staff, a company backstory, brochures, a corporate video and branded stationary.
The ad sees the fake brand’s representatives offering people increasing amounts of money for their eyeballs. The would-be-eye-sellers then grapple with what life without sight would be, and whether they can put a price on their vision.
Chris Ellis, creative director at Cummins & Partners, said the team started with a human truth – you wouldn’t trade your eyes for anything – and then put it to the test.
“The result is genuine emotion from everyday Australians when confronted with the prospect of a world without vision – it’s undeniable,” he said.
The tail-end of the ad focuses on questioning the participants – who insisted their eyesight was not for sale – on how long it had been since they’d had an eye test.
Sean Cummins, the agency’s founder, said: “The best advertising doesn’t just get people to think, but act. We believe this compelling piece of work will do both.”
Specsavers marketing director Sarah McInnes added: “We have a big problem in this country with people not understanding the crucial importance of preventative eye care. No Australian should suffer from preventable vision loss or blindness.”
The Priceless Eyes campaign launched yesterday in Australia and will run across TV, online, social media and print.
This is very very good.
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This is ableism, pure and simple.
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My grandfather died of a brain tumor. There was an option to operate and attempt to remove the tumor, however – due to the position of the tumor – this carried the risk of my grandfather losing his vision. My grandfather declined the operation and was moved into palliative care.
I invite you to come and tell me to my face that my grandfather was being ‘ableist’.
Sit down.
This is a wonderful campaign.
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No actual insight. Nothing new. Will do nothing for Specsavers.
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Good to see the creative agency already commenting above.
What a horrible emotional train smash. Consumers smell the dung a mile away and the brand pays the price.
When the fake whatever-she-was finally said “you can’t put a price on your eyes” my partner and I let out an audible “Get f—-d!”. That sentiment was extended to both creative agency and the brand.
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I would love to have sat in the pitch for this. The human truth that people don’t want to lose a part of their body. I laughed so loud people across the office heard.
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This has “the agency has already written their award submission” all over it.
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What an idiotic thing to compare it to! Your grandfathers brain tumour has no relevance to this whatsoever!
My young son is vision impaired and this ad is truly offensive, insensitive and distasteful. It’s pretty obvious some wanker ad executive thinks is genius but utterly failed to attract one of they key target audience audiences…the vision impaired!
This ad implies life is meaningless and has no value if you can’t see. The tone of the ad implies these people have been given a diagnosis of a terminal illness. What does that say to people who are blind or vision impaired? Ableism at it’s finest!
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There is nothing ‘wonderful’ about an offensive piece of commercial fodder which stigmatises an entire group of Australian’s living happy, fulfilling and productive lives with vision impairment.
They’re a brand and this is not a public health campaign for preventative eye care. Goodluck to Cummins and Partners for ‘selling’ their soul to sell a product.
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If the intension is to stir up the place to get attention, then that has certainly happened. apart from that, this add has gone across the line. it infers that life without site is no life at all. this is simply not true. yet another example of vision loss as being treated as a world ending tragedy,which it is not. I am not diminishing the trorma associated with losing site, as it is extremely traumatic, but not life ending. I am stating that there is life poastsite reduction or site loss. how shallow has society become.
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As a totally blind mother of three children, one granddaughter, whom I love and have raised without sight. I simply find this ad offensive. Drawing on emotions and implying that to lose sight is a tragedy and means one cannot attend one’s child’s socca, dancing etc, is just rubbish as, I have attended all these things when my now, grown children were little. yes, they did grow up and are now perfectly functioning adults who are studying and working contributing to society despite having a totally blind mother. And you know what, when my children were babies and growing, I worked fulltime too. yep that helpless, desperate blind person you portray in your ad, held down a job, raised three children etc. stick to the non-offensive humour ads. just as you wouldn’t put on a racist or sexist ad, it is not ok to put on an ablest ad either.
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Agree! It most certainly is and I thought that the first time I saw It. It is also emotionally manipulative and just bloody annoying because, these tactics are used purley to drum up more business. People crying about giving up their eyes for money! Come on, its a bit bloody ridiculous!
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Great post! Agree wholeheartedly. It’s a despicable add and I hope they loose money from it.
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I found this advert offensive the first time I saw it. It’s most definitely ableist. “B-b-but life wouldn’t be worth *living* if I didn’t have muh eyes….”
This genius advertising company totally contrived a situation in an attempt to emotionally manipulate viewers.
I’d love to see the clips where the unsuspecting people take a moment to think about the fake company’s proposition, and bang a fist on the table yelling “SOLD!”.
Also – there is a creepy organ harvest vibe about the advert. You know in some places human beings give up their lives so their organs can be harvested in the hopes that payment will go to their family.
Total dud.
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Your fun ads were good but now you have blown all the good will. I don’t think you will be able to offer enough cash to buy it back.
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Used to enjoy your funny ads, but you blew it.
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The emotional manipulation quotient is inversely proportional to the trustworthiness quotient. What were they thinking?
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Offensive and should have been withdrawn and the idiots who are responsible sacked.Can’t believe it is still showing.
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This ad is completely disingenuous, claiming that the “retailer” SpecSavers actually gives a shit about eye health, when all they really want is to sell you specs! It is insulting to human intelligence, will do nothing for their brand, in fact, I suspect more harm that good, and certainly does nothing to improve their industry’s image at all. It should be pulled. How awful.
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