Photographer Jay Fram and 2e Creative personnel bustle around a hallway in the UMSL Patient Care Center. The building served as the backdrop for a new campaign concept the agency is working on for Johnson & Johnson Vision. (Photos by August Jennewein)

The Patient Care Center at the University of Missouri–St. Louis attracted more than neighborhood patients, optometry students and educators to its facility last week.

2e Creative, a St. Louis marketing agency, had photographer Jay Fram and actors bustling throughout a section of exam aisles and halls closed off for a two-day photo shoot in the building, which served as the perfect backdrop for a new campaign concept.

The agency is working on marketing materials for Johnson & Johnson Vision’s intraocular lenses. An intraocular lens is implanted inside the eye to replace the eye’s natural lens when it is removed during cataract surgery.

“At Johnson & Johnson Vision, we are always looking for ways to better communicate with our audiences authentically, tapping into the emotion that ties us all to our most important sense, sight,” said Terry Koritz, vice president of global marketing for Johnson & Johnson Vision’s surgical business. “As such it is always critical that we produce great creative work. We were grateful to work with UMSL on this photo shoot for the authenticity and creativity the space provided.”

UMSL Patient Care Center

“During location scouting, we found UMSL’s Patient Care Center provided us with multiple options for a wide range of shots,” said Sara Sexton, an account director at 2e Creative. “The state-of-the-art exam rooms, modern interior and excellent lighting made it an optimal choice. As a bonus, the elegant décor was an effortless match to the campaign look-and-feel and brand colors.”

Since its grand opening in November 2016, the UMSL Patient Care Center has continued to draw people to its facility. It recently opened a SSM Health office, offering north St. Louis County a nearby option for primary health care and obstetrics and gynecology. It’s also hosted numerous campus events, including a neuroscience research fair.

“I always knew the UMSL Patient Care Center would be a bright spot for campus but more importantly for the community,” said Larry Davis, dean of the College of Optometry. “While I never imagined it as a setting for health-care marketing photo shoots, I think it’s telling of the modern design and care the center offers and equally telling of our collaborative and welcoming nature as a community partner.”

Davis, campus leadership and the University of Missouri System were instrumental in finding the funds to erect the UMSL Patient Care Center, which now houses the University Eye Center where optometry students learn and practice patient care. Financing required a significant shift in the optometry college’s budget and a student fee which the students voted for and approved.