In Colombia, over 50,000 children suffer from Amblyopia or Lazy Eye. Many of these children live in under privileged communities and lack access to medical professionals. Primarily due to the high cost of medical care.

After the success of I Rescue in 2018, the Amblyopia World Campaign briefed us to create a new and engaging way for children in underprivileged communities to test themselves for amblyopia. The more ways we have to reach these children with affordable and accessible medical care, the more chance we have to save their eyesight.

The objective of the campaign was simple: To help children test themselves for amblyopia so we could treat them early on and save their sight.

Children with amblyopia or lazy eye can’t watch movies in 3D. That’s because 3D movies use two projectors to create one image that requires both eyes to focus.

With this realization we turned a 3D animation into a test for amblyopia. To do this required a smart and impeccably crafted design system: Three visual animations in one. Why? Because we needed to test for amblyopia in the right eye, the left eye, or in the case of no amblyopia, both eyes. So we designed an elephant made from two snakes. If children had healthy eyes they’d see the elephant. But if children saw one of the snakes, it meant they potentially suffered from amblyopia.

Using Colombia’s 2018 population data we noted the number of children between 0-14 is around 11 million. Using further data from poverty and inequality indexes we saw that 3 out of 10 children lived near or below the poverty rate. Since around 50,000 children suffer from amblyopia in Colombia we concluded that 32% or 21,000 children lived in underprivileged communities.

To reach these kids and their parents, the data led us to Royal Films, Colombia’s second largest movie chain and the widest reach of cinemas nationwide. Plus they provide discounted movie tickets at their cinema’s located in underprivileged communities, giving us a direct in to engage parents and children somewhere they loved to visit together, the cinema.

After 3D Rescue played a call-to action encouraged the parents of children who tested positive for amblyopia to call the Amblyopia World Campaign directly for a free consultation and affordable medical care.

To implement 3D Rescue we partnered with Royal Films, Colombia’s second largest movie chain. Royal Films have cinemas located all over Colombia, including in many underprivileged neighborhoods where they offer discounted movie tickets. Knowing this, we then had to figure out how to get maximum impact so we timed the launch of the 3D Rescue campaign with the opening week of the 2019 remake of the kids classic, Dumbo - a movie we knew kids would be lining up to see. Once in their seats, placement of 3D Rescue was crucial because it had to play when most kids in the cinema would A. be wearing their 3D glasses and B. focused on the movie screen - during the previews.

In 3D Rescue’s opening weekend it helped two children self-diagnose themselves with amblyopia. The parents of both children contacted the Amblyopia World Campaign directly and have since sought out affordable medical treatment. The response has been so great that Royal Films extended its run from one week to a month, and is currently showing it in more of their movie theaters. They’re also let us run 3D Rescue during the opening weekend of The Avengers: End Game - reaching over 250,000 parents and children in the first month alone and increasing the potential for 3D Rescue to save the eyesight of even more children in Colombia.