Pegasus to push eye vitamins

Bradley: will oversee account

Bausch & Lomb has appointed Pegasus PR to work on its products for age-related macular disorders.

The eye health company, which used to manufacture Ray-Ban sunglasses, has retained Sussex-based Pegasus to work on its PreserVision range of eye vitamins and minerals.

The two-a-day food supplements are targeted at older people whose eyesight is in greater danger of failing.

Pegasus associate director Helen Yeardsley will lead the account, which aims to position the client as an expert in vision-related matters.

Key messages include: reiterating Bausch & Lomb’s ongoing commitment to nutritional research into age-related ocular health; the need for protecting faculties such as sight in an ageing population; and the importance of balanced vitamin and mineral intake in eye health.

The trade campaign launched this week. Yeardsley said: ‘Our campaign will build a long-term strategy to help raise awareness of eye-related health issues through an ongoing programme of consumer activity.’

There will be a celebrity-fronted campaign of issues-led activity later this year.

Senior account manager Stephanie Butt, who joined last month from the same role at Bell Pottinger, will support Yeardsley. Senior account executive Terri Foster is also working on the brief and MD Lisa Bradley will oversee the account.

The campaign will use calendar events such as National Eye Week, run by the Eyecare Trust, and Macular Disease Awareness Week, which are both due in the autumn, to raise awareness.

PreserVision contains antioxidant supplements which were tested in a ten-year eye health study by the US National Eye Institute which monitored 4,000 50 to 80-year-olds.

The campaign will also emphasise that the supplements are easy to swallow. It is Pegasus’ second health client win in two months, following its appointment last month by the Health Food Manufacturers’ Association (PRWeek, 20 April).

Earlier this year Bausch & Lomb handed its European account to Tonic Life after a decade with Euro RSCG Biss Lancaster (PRWeek, 28 February).