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Specsavers Creative, the in-house advertising agency for the UK’s leading optician, has sent a teddy bear into space for a new campaign to promote the brand’s ‘kids get two free pairs of glasses’ offer.

Launching on Saturday 21 March 2015 during ITV’s Saturday Night Takeaway, the campaign highlights the eccentric and amusing ways children manage to lose their glasses.

Directed by HLA’s Simon Ratigan, one of 2014’s top ten commercials directors, the campaign’s focal point is a TV commercial that opens with a glasses-wearing teddy bear floating up into the sky courtesy of party balloons.

We also see glasses falling into the sea, being left behind on a sushi conveyor belt and appearing in the X-ray of a giraffe’s neck. The commercial ends with a breathtaking shot of the teddy floating in space above planet earth – a scene that was created for real with help from scientific balloons.

The space travelling bear is the star of the ad. Named Jerrie (in honour of Geraldyn ‘Jerrie’ Cobb – the first woman to complete astronaut-style training), she also appears in a supporting programme of digital activity:

Teasers will run on Specsavers’ social channels. During the TV campaign’s airtime, the ad will be supported with VOD (video on demand), alongside various targeted web and mobile site advertising. All media will run with the hashtag #TeddyinSpace. Online, the commercial will link to a ‘making of’ film focusing on behind-the-scenes footage of the first ever glasses-wearing teddy being sent into space.  

Specsavers’ Creative Director, Graham Daldry, said: “Two free pairs of kids’ glasses is an amazing offer and our brief was to communicate it strongly. Filming a teddy bear in space certainly does that. With Simon Ratigan’s accomplished storytelling skills, I’m confident that this will be a memorable and effective campaign. We’re also really excited about the digital material which extends the story in a way I think our audiences will love.”