April 21 2026, 3:32 pm | BY Ricki Green | No Comments
VML Sydney and 1001 Optometry have picked up an ANDY Award for The Hidden Eye Test, a campaign that turned everyday ads into AI-powered eye exams hiding in plain sight.
Instead of another “book now” reminder, the team built a system that used AI to sneak bespoke eye tests into media people stare at every day.
The idea was simple: If you can see it, you probably need an eye test.
From type hidden in social posts to barely-there lines in out-of-home, The Hidden Eye Test transformed regular ads into quiet interventions for eye health – no scare tactics, just a smart little provocation baked into the work itself.
Says Richard Williams, Group Executive Creative Director, VML Melbourne and Sydney: “This started with a human problem: nobody wants to think about their vision until something goes wrong. So, we used AI not to make ads about glasses, but to make every ad a test to see if you need them. The ANDY win is proof that when tech and a simple human truth meet in the middle, good things happen.”
For 1001 Optometry, the campaign helped turn passive media into an active health check, catching the attention of people who didn’t even know they needed help seeing what was right in front of them.
The ANDY Awards celebrate the world’s most inventive ideas in advertising. This year, one of them was tucked into the fine print.
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