What it had to solve
Launch Optrex ActiMist, a fast itchy-eye relief spray, at the start of hay fever season as the UK emerged from winter lockdown, predominantly on digital and social.
The idea
Body-paint sufferers' eyes into watery, itchy, bloodshot caricatures on painted scenes — which spring into live footage the moment the spray works.
How it works
Make-up artist and body painter Claire Dimopoulou created four hay fever looks on real people, directed by Adam Bolt via UNIT9; built with creative management platform Ad-Lib.io, assets, copy, targeting and placement adapt quickly to pollen count, weather, news, cultural events and trending topics, running in many formats all summer.
What it did
It signalled 'a fresh direction for Optrex's annual hay fever offering' per creative director Dave Mygind — a living campaign designed to evolve through summer. The material reports no sales figures.
Background
As the UK emerged from winter lockdown in April 2021, Reckitt eye care brand Optrex launched 'Open Your Eyes to Spring' with Havas London for its ActiMist spray, timed to the start of hay fever season.
The campaign dramatises symptoms through arresting caricatured eyes — watery, itchy, puffy and bloodshot — created on real people by make-up artist and body painter Claire Dimopoulou, directed by Adam Bolt through UNIT9. The background scenes are painted and static too, until sufferers use Optrex ActiMist: the freakish painted eyes fade away and the scenes spring to life as real footage.
The deeper machinery is contextual: working with creative management platform Ad-Lib.io, Havas can rapidly adapt assets, copy, targeting and placement to variables including pollen count and weather, or to reflect news, cultural events and trending topics. Four different hay fever looks keep the creative evolving with types of hay fever and events through summer — what creative director Dave Mygind called 'a living and breathing campaign'.
Why it lands
The before/after is built into the film's grammar: painted distortion versus living footage makes the product's effect visible without a claim.
Body painting gives sufferers a face they recognise — the exaggeration reads instantly to anyone with hay fever.
The Ad-Lib.io pipeline turns one shoot into a summer of context-aware variants, matching the condition itself, which changes daily with the pollen count.
What you can take
Paint the symptom on the person and relief becomes visible; pair it with a self-updating feed and a seasonal product stays culturally current.
Since then
The campaign ran across digital and social in a variety of formats through summer 2021. No later performance data appears in the source.
FOLLOW THE EVIDENCE