Home » Glaucoma Australia Launches New ‘Treat Your Eyes’ Campaign For World Glaucoma Week 2021

10 March, 2021

Glaucoma Australia Launches New ‘Treat Your Eyes’ Campaign For World Glaucoma Week 2021

Glaucoma Australia has created a new, upbeat campaign called ‘Treat Your Eyes’, which is encouraging Australians to treat their precious peepers to an eye test in support of World Glaucoma Week (7 – 13 March 2021).

Iconic Aussie rock star and glaucoma patient Kirk Pengilly (pictured) is once again fronting the campaign, aimed at generating greater awareness of the disease and mobilising Australians at risk to get their eyes tested to avoid irreversible damage or blindness.

Glaucoma is the leading cause of irreversible blindness worldwide. The disease affects 300,000 Australians, with 50% unaware that they have the disease because they haven’t had a comprehensive eye exam.

There is no cure for glaucoma and vision loss is irreversible, making early detection and treatment key to saving sight.

The Treat Yours Eyes campaign is the creative of Stokes Street Studio, and will appear as retail out-of-home advertising campaign featuring Kirk Pengilly in the ‘Treat Your Eyes’ campaign across Shopper Media Group’s digital Smartlite advertising panels in local shopping centres nationally.

This will be supported by television and radio community service announcements that will air throughout the month of March across Channel 7, Prime 7 and WIN TV who have also thrown their support behind the campaign.

CEO of Glaucoma Australia Annie Gibbins said, “three in one hundred Australians will develop glaucoma in their lifetime, yet more than a third (35%) have not undergone regular eye examinations ¹, thereby increasing their risk of glaucoma remaining undiagnosed. We need this to change. We hope the Treat Your Eyes campaign can spark Australians into action and get an eye test.

“This year Australians can book an appointment through the Treat Your Eyes website page, enabling us to track the response to the campaign and set a number we can aim to beat next year,” added Gibbins.

Kirk Pengilly was touring with INXS in the late 1980s when he experienced what felt like daggers being pressed into his eyes. It was only thanks to pioneering laser surgery at the time that his sight was saved from what was an acute angle-closure glaucoma attack.

“An eye test is quick and painless and could be the difference between losing your vision, or not. Just as you go to the dentist or doctor for a check-up, you need to put an eye exam on your things-to-do list – particularly those over 50 like me. Use this World Glaucoma Week as a cue to book and treat your eyes to a simple test,” urged Kirk.

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