LEXINGTON, Mass.—Shire PLC has partnered with the actress Jennifer Aniston to launch an educational awareness campaign focusing on chronic dry eye and general awareness of proper eye health.

The centrepiece of the campaign is the website myeyelove.com, a story-driven site with information from both eyecare professionals and women with dry eye. The site also offers information to help people better recognize the symptoms of dry eye, learn about the causes, and a conversation guide to prepare for a meeting with an eye doctor.

Aniston is one of the nearly 30 million Americans who experience symptoms consistent with chronic dry eye, also more simply known as dry eye. An estimated 16 million people are diagnosed with the condition. “My eyes often become dry, itchy and irritated, especially when I am reading or outside,” Aniston said. “The symptoms were bothering me so much that I finally decided to speak with my eye doctor, and learned I have dry eye.”

Getting Americans to talk about dry eye symptoms is what inspired Shire to launch the educational campaign, which it hopes will inspire people to “show their eyes some love” and to visit an eyecare professional to discuss dry eye symptoms, according to a company statement.

“Shire is thrilled to partner with Jennifer Aniston to help educate people about dry eye and the steps they can take to maintain and improve their eye health,” said Robert Dempsey, Head, Ophthalmics franchise at Shire. “As a leading biotech company, we are passionate about making a meaningful and lasting difference in the lives of patients.”

To bring the eyelove experience to life, Shire will support a two-day demonstration of the “eyelove art project” in New York City. The event will be held at the High Line on Friday, Oct. 7 (9 a.m. until 6 p.m.), and Saturday, Oct. 8 (11 a.m. until 7 p.m.), and visitors will be invited to share their own personal eyelove before creating a unique artistic image of their eye via a customized photo capture at the demonstration.

Victoria Noble, who leads marketing for ophthalmics at Shire, said that many women have annual reminders for their dentist or OB/GYN visits, “but seeing an eye doctor falls off the to-do list.” She added, “With the eyelove campaign and our exciting event in NYC, we hope to ignite women to show some eyelove and encourage their girlfriends to do the same.”

Aniston is featured in the video below about dry eye produced by Shire.