Post advertising, and in between film projects I have put on my Creative Brand Consultant hat.

It was an opportunity to offer strategic creative advice, designing re-brands, web builds, and delivery bespoke advertising campaigns.

I still love solving comms problems.

But these days, I am more likely to turn my hand to advocacy for the things I’m passionate about.

I’m not sure you could make this commercial in 2025.

But around the turn of the century, adland was much more irreverent.

When I wrote this television commercial, Ray Lawrence (Lantana, Jindabyne) was going to direct it.

We had worked together on quite a few campaigns by then, a great series for Dulux, even some Libra work, but at the last moment he had to pull out.

So I jumped in to direct.

It was a fun shoot, and left some indelible memories.

Being one of the few women on the shoot, and despite a bunch of very eager blokes, it was my job, between takes, to step in and use a Chux to erase the tide line on the actress’ chest each time the milk level dropped.

Agency: Clemenger BBDO (Melbourne) late 1990s.

Getting a brief to write a prime time commercial for incontinence is probably not what you’d call a dream job for most advertising creatives.

Certainly not back at the end of the 20th century when sanitary protection was still pretty medieval, let alone the dreaded ‘inco’ category.

But for me, being briefed on Tena was a golden opportunity.

I hated the advertising that had been done for years across the world, with elderly women being forced to deliver excruciating oblique dialogue beside tinkling streams.

This had nothing to do with the reality of the problem.

It crossed all age groups and was strongly linked to motherhood.

I wanted to redefine the problem and give women recognition for their strength, not their bladder’s weakness.

This wasn’t about old people who couldn’t ‘hold it together’.

This was about one in three women who have had children suffering from bladder weakness.

The secrecy around this taboo, made women of all ages feel terrible about themselves.

To me, these women represented strength, and bladder weakness was yet another war wound of motherhood.

There was plenty of support for do the pelvic floor work, in the campaign.

But the purpose of this ad was to helped remove the shame, I decided to go one step further and celebrate their strength.

The other joy was casting a bunch of heavily pregnant friends, none of whom were actors, to star in the commercial. Very real.

Agency: Clemenger BBDO (Melbourne) late 1990s.

Yes, that’s Naomi Watts.

And no, I didn’t have a hand in casting her in this early 90s commercial. That was Linda Thompson.

However I did write the script for this brand film and it was finally approved the day before I flew to Paris for a year.

I’d been writing all the Libra commercials for a few years, and the sales growth had been phenomenal. So the pressure to keep raising the bar meant the deliberations went on for some time.

I still remember receiving a parcel in Paris with a pair of Levis 501 jeans inside, along with a thank you note from the client.

I worked on the Libra brand for almost 16 years while at Clemenger. And it was an incredibly successful partnership.

I think Libra went from 15% of market to over 35%.

And the client generously recognised the creative work as the key driver in that success..

So many brands over the years.

I was especially grateful to Just Jeans, REV, Tena, Libra and others for enabling me to transition from writing their commercials to directing.

Back then it was unheard of for agency creatives to direct commercials. That was always outsourced to independent production houses.

Again, Clemenger enabled me to grow within the company, by supporting in-house productions through Port Productions, part of the Clemenger group.

Executive Creative Director, David Blackley, was instrumental in enabling creatives like Tony Rogers, Maurice Dowd, myself and others to direct through Port Productions.

My first short film Just Do It was produced with the assistance of Port Production while I still worked for Clemenger.

Peter Clemenger understood the value of keeping staff engaged over the long haul. Retaining key staff was their secret weapon.

Back in the ’90s, this commercial for Libra was a world first, breaking the biggest taboo in the fempro category.

Back then, young girls could be forgiven for thinking that getting your period somehow involved leaking blue ink.

We were told by the taste and decency police within Australia’s Federation of Commercial Television Stations (FACTS) not to even bother shooting the commercial, they would never allow it to be screened on Australian commercial television.

But a brave client, and a tenacious and strategic account director enabled us to win the day.

It certainly looked like blood, but cunningly disguised in a film noir murder mystery storyline, directed by David Deneen of Filmgraphics, we were able to argue that the liquid on the floor was water from an upturned vase. It stymied the complaints board, and went on to be extraordinarily successful for the client.

A fun shoot, and one of my favourites in nearly 20 years writing TVCs.

Writer: Sarah Hatherley

Art Director: Sarah Barclay

Strategy/Account Director: Diane Metcalfe

Agency: Clemenger BBDO (Melbourne) circa 1996.

My advertising career began before the internet was invented. We’re not talking horse and buggy era, but it was closer to Mad Men than Emily in Paris. Although I have to say, I did work in Paris before Emily.

Back in 1993, Peter Clemenger organised for me to have a year working in the Paris office. It was a generous move on his behalf. And it expanded my horizons enormously.

When I returned to Australia, I joined the board of Clemenger BBDO Melbourne and enjoyed another decade at the agency. Post advertising, I even incorporated some of my wilder Parisian agency experiences into a screenplay.