As a twenty-something in the 1960s and early 70s, Joanne Young often had the unsettling experience of being confronted by her own smiling face.
Sometimes it was on a TV screen, other times in a cinema.
It could be on a poster, sometimes even as a life-size cut-out. Such was the life of Miss Babycham.
Joanne, now 75, was chosen to be the face of the brand, which is currently being relaunched, but was unprepared for the level of fame that came with it.
“Sometimes I’d get stopped in Sainsbury’s and people would ask ‘Are you Miss Babycham?’,” she laughs.
“Some off-licences used to have life-size cut-outs of me, it was so bizarre.
“There was one near my mum’s house and my dad went into it and said ‘can I have that, it’s my daughter?’
“They thought he was kind of crazy but they said ‘yes, after Christmas you can have it’. So my dad gave it to me and I’ve still got it in the loft.”
Joanne has fond memories of her years as Miss Babycham, from 1967 to 1971. So she was delighted when she recently heard the Somerset creators of the sweet perry drink, the Showering family, are bringing it back.
Joanne, whose surname is now Skipper, immediately picked up the phone. “I saw it in the paper and thought to myself ‘shall I give the Showerings a quick ring?’” she reveals. “I’ve got to admit I felt a bit of a heart-tug.”
Joanne was just starting out when she fronted their TV ads but it almost didn’t happen as there was a competition to become Miss Babycham and initially she wasn’t keen.
She recalls: “My agent told me about the competition but I didn’t want to enter as I was already a working model.
“I reluctantly agreed, and I only went and won it! You could have knocked me down with a feather, I couldn’t believe it.”
Joanne, who lives in East Grinstead, West Sussex, even appeared in the Mirror when the public was asked to choose the winner from a line-up of finalists.
Back in 1967 the brand was well known for the Babycham Bambi, which has adorned more than a million bottles since the 1950s.
With its catchy slogan “I’d love a Babycham”, it was the first alcoholic drink advertisement to appear on British TV screens.
Babycham was sipped by glamorous ladies, who had never before had an alcoholic drink marketed directly at them.
Joanne, who also appeared on TV ads for Harmony hairspray and Heinz soup during her modelling career, says the Babycham ad turned her into a bit of a celebrity. And her family – husband Alan, two grown-up children and four grandchildren – are understandably proud of her.
“My family loves it,” she says.
“I met my husband after being in the Babycham adverts. A mutual friend introduced us.
“He’s a rock ’n’ roll drummer. He still plays now but back then he was in The Pretty Things [rock fans would know him as Skip Alan].”
And while Babycham is now having a revamp, it almost made a comeback two decades ago.
Joanne’s daughter Louisa, now 44, was in the frame to follow in her modelling footsteps. Louisa even appeared in the Mirror with a life-size cut-out of her mother as the project got under way.
“She was in the paper but the relaunch itself didn’t happen,” Joanne says. “It would have been lovely to see Louisa as the new Miss Babycham.”
For now, however, Joanne is happy to look back on her modelling career with fond memories, sometimes with a little tipple in hand.
“Babycham is iconic,” she says. “I still enjoy one from time to time.”
