Sally Williams, the face of the iconic Brand Power commercials, has revealed why she left the TV job after more than 25 years.
Since the early 1990s, Williams has advised Aussie consumers on household products under the tagline “Helping you buy better”. However, she decided to quit the job in 2017 after a “horrific” experience she had during a family holiday.
“I was in Indonesia around 10 years ago with my family on a boat stopping at islands in a beautiful, tropical paradise – but I was gobsmacked by the rubbish piling up on the beaches,” the mother-of-two told news.com.au.
“It was so bad I couldn’t find somewhere to put my feet without stepping on rubbish – it was horrific, and it made me feel ill.
“I made the decision [to leave Brand Power] because I was sick of myself. I realised I was leading people into supermarkets, and they would come out with 20 plastic bags probably half filled with things I had advertised.”
Williams said she had difficulty reconciling her environmental concerns with her role in promoting certain brands she does not support. “People would come up to me and say, ‘I remember this ad, you told me to buy this product, and that’s enough for me’,” she said. “They had so much trust in me for all those years.”
The 57-year-old now has a regular segment on 3AW’s Afternoon Show, where she was dubbed as “Sustainable Sally”, and the TV show Vasili’s Garden on 7Two. She also works as an ambassador for shopping trolley manufacturer Supercart Australia to raise awareness of sustainable trolleys made out of recycled plastic.
She still works with Brand Power non-exclusively under a policy of aligning herself only to sustainable brands. “I know if I can give people information around sustainable practices it will categorically change their purchase decisions,” Williams told Mumbrella last year.
