These photo shoots are rough. Take this 20/20’s sunwear shoot, SunDate: Three beautiful women in a scant scattering of eye-popping swimwear. Photographer Stephen Sullivan made sure they all came to the pre-shoot go-see (yeah, I hate that word but that’s what it’s called) in bikinis so bodies could be judged in impartial perfection. Then, on the day of the shoot (which was as dismal and NYC pre-winter dreary as can be) the all-women edit and art team of 20/20 buzzed with action adjusting frames, tweaking bits of fabric on heavenly bodies, tweeting ongoing results of every camera snap and Facebooking the whole experience to the all-time high record delight of numerous readers, vendors and… me. “Me” meanwhile overloaded on both the live and social media event blessing that golden orb for this opportunity to experience yet another sunwear shoot.
Simply put, nothing makes for more fun than sun(wear) in this optical arena. And THAT’s really the point of this Spina-dreamscape. The world of sunwear is your OPtion there for the taking but you need to embrace it. The opportunity of engaging everyone about their needs and wants with sunwear is present at every dispensing instance in your day-to-day professional role.
Even when someone is about to walk away with an eye-smile of 20/20 vision and no need for an Rx fitting, the grand occasion still exists for a chance to engage in a SunDate.
And you cannot do that if you just have a few stale fashion brands stuck “over there” on an old, mismatched rotating display. Ditto, your chance to sportify someone if the only sport sunwear you have available is a sunglass crafted for the visor of a medieval knight.
If your chosen sun lines are as faint as your now fading summer tan lines, you need to heat things up and heat them to the extreme and FAST. The battle for consumer interest in your wares has never been more critical. But this is a crisis with double-edged justification. Your patients NEED sunwear, and they also WANT sunwear. Don’t drop the (beach)ball here and then trip over it as well. Just remember poor pitiful me, surrounded by a bevy of beautiful women (models, editors and art director) with nothing else truly on the agenda but… sunwear. Put up and Suit up.
