Celebrity judges include (clockwise from top left), Randy Jackson, Robert Irvine, Cynthia Shapiro and Amy Schneider.

LAKELAND, Tenn.—The Opticians Association of America’s (OAA) “Great American Optician Video Contest” has named four celebrity judges and postponed the deadline for submissions until Friday July 18, 2014. The celebrity judges will be Grammy Award-winning producer, Randy Jackson; celebrity chef, Robert Irvine, of the Food Network’s “Restaurant Impossible;” Amy Schneider, co-founder and VP, product development, Eyes of Faith; and fashionista, business woman and designer, Cynthia Shapiro, who founded Europa International with her late husband, Alan, in 1977. The OAA is hosting the video contest in partnership with Transitions Optical.

Open to anyone in the U.S., the contest invites students, state associations, filmmakers, etc. to create 30- to 90-second videos that convey to consumers what opticians are and what they do. The videos will then be posted on the OAA YouTube Channel to be reviewed by the panel of celebrity judges. The winners will be announced at the 2014 International Vision Expo West in Las Vegas. The winning video will receive $3,500, second place will win $2,000 and third place will receive $1,000.

Sam Morgenstern, spokesperson for the video contest, said, “Opticians know the important role they play in the eyecare field. However, the everyday consumer does not really understand what an optician is and does. This contest is a fun way to help ‘define’ opticianry for the consumer. After the winners are announced in Las Vegas, I am hopeful that a short commercial segment will be created that can be seen all across America, so please put your creative thinking caps on and help us define what the Great American Optician is.”

A complete list of the contest instructions, rules and regulations are
available on the OAA’s website.