141. Creative Guild Print Ad of the Year 1987: VISINE EYEDROPS, “Visibly Refreshing”

UNMISTAKABLY OPTICAL. VISINE EYEDROPS, "Visibly Refreshing" 1987

Ace Compton, now officially known as Ace/Saatchi & Saatchi, scored its third Print Ad of the Year victory in 1987 with “Visibly Refreshing,” an ad for a mini-pack version of VISINE, Pfizer Philippines’ popular eye drops. “Visibly refreshing” had been running as a campaign for some time, and long-time client Pfizer, had wanted to use the brand name to sell the new 6 ml.  budget version. Client originally planned to use a predictable parade of progressive bottle sizes, but CD Jimmy Santiago and his concept team had other ideas.

The search for an “unmistakably optical device,: was conceived by art director, Ariel Dalisay.  Copywriter Robert Labayen lent his copy expertise, which Dalisay laid out over an entire page--jumbling and arranging the letters like those of an eye chart, commonly displayed in doctors’ offices.

Starting with a huge “A” at the top of the “chart” , Dalisay punctuated it with a shot of the product being peered at from under a small magnifier. Additional info copy—“Get a pack from this store”. “In tamper-resistant packs, too.”, and the battlecry “VISINE—Gets the red out in 60 seconds”—all fit satisfactorily into the full page, full color ad-cum-outlet poster without distracting from the intently recognizable visual device.

“That was the big idea”, Santiago recalls. “The eye chart for an eye product—the connection was almost seamless.”

VISINE stayed with Saatchi for several years after the ad was run.

CREDITS:

AGENCY: Ace/ Saatchi & Saatchi

ADVERTISER: Pfizer, Inc.

PRODUCT: Visine Eyedrops

CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Jimmy F. Santiago

COPYWRITER: Robert Labayen

ART DIRECTOR: Ariel Dalisay

SOURCE:

Perfect 10: A Decade of Creativity in Philippine Advertising, written by Butch Uy. Published by the Executive Committee of the Creative Guild of the Philippines. 1995.p. 24.