The College of Optometrists

12 June 2007

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Over the past six weeks, the College has stepped up its public awareness raising campaign in the consumer media, leading to coverage on national TV, radio and press, along with regional radio and press, and around 30 websites – resulting in over 75 million opportunities to see or hear its message.

Following research it commissioned into people’s eye hygiene habits, the College developed two story-lines: Terrible ‘eye-giene’ puts contact lens wearers at risk of blindness, based on findings that included one in five people licking their contact lenses before wearing them and two out of five putting their lenses in with dirty hands. And Kiss and Make-up? Eye'd rather not! which highlighted ways in which women put their eye health at risk with more than 90% of them keeping their eye makeup for longer than recommended and a quarter of women sharing their eye makeup.

Raising public awareness of the importance of eye health and the role of the optometrist is a key element of the College’s strategy, and the campaign has been designed to help achieve this. Using media-friendly research focussing on people’s bad habits has given the College a hook to engage with the consumer media and an opportunity to discuss the serious messages underlying the statistics. In each press release and conversation with journalists, the College reminds people to visit their optometrists regularly.

Commenting on the campaign, Beth Elgood, Director of Member Services and Communications, said, “We have been delighted by the response to the latest element of our awareness-raising campaign, which really seemed to capture the media’s imagination. We found that our interesting, perhaps surprising, stories, coupled with the College’s credibility as a professional body and the excellent spokespeople we were able to provide were a winning combination for engaging with the media at a level we have never previously achieved. Journalists from Denmark, India and Brazil have contacted us on the back of our stories but the most important aspect of this for the College and the optical sector as a whole is that we have been able to raise the importance of eye health and optometry in the UK media and through them, help to raise public awareness of the need for regular eye checks.”