Meet Baby Jane!
Jane Rogers was just a bub when she became the face of Woolworths 50 years ago.
I was the first face of Woolworths
2:34 min read
With a full head of glorious brown curls, an impish smile and a happy disposition, Jane was one of the most famous babies in Australia when she was chosen to be the face of Woolworths.
“It was fun,” she says, admitting she can’t remember much from all the Woolworths campaigns she starred in from the age of 12 months to 5 years old.
Now 52 and a mother-of-three, what Jane does recall is meeting then-Prime Minister Gough Whitlam and his wife Margaret at the grand opening of a Liverpool shopping centre in the 1970s.
“I remember they came in a horse and carriage. I had to give them some flowers and I thought she was the Queen because she was wearing a hat. I do remember that!” she laughs.
But her favourite memory is of the day she spent shooting a Woolworths soft drink commercial at Manly Beach, when she was allowed to splash about in the water with the photographer’s pet bulldog.
“And I got to drink lots of soft drinks which I wasn’t allowed to have when I was a kid!” smiles Jane, who had no idea how recognisable she was until her cousin told her years later that her face was everywhere in the mid to late-70s.
“I also remember doing a nighties shoot with these older girls, who must have been about 10, and I thought they were just so sophisticated. I was 3 and they seemed very grown-up!”
Jane says her star turn for Woolworths only came about after she lost out to another baby girl in the one and only beautiful baby competition that her mum, Joy, entered her into after a friend was captivated with her daughter’s beauty.
“I didn’t win the competition, but a lady saw my photo and thought I would be great for modelling because I didn’t look like a typical baby – I had lots of brown, curly hair,” she says.
“When I did some stuff for Woolies, it all clicked into place, and I became the face of their home brand. I was used in campaigns for everything from knitted dresses, cheese, coffee, biscuits and men’s shirts.”
Jane “retired” from modelling when she started school, and these days she is living a great life on Sydney’s Northern Beaches with her husband Peter and their three children, real estate agent Charlotte, 22, and their 18-year-old twin boys, Hamish and Will, who are currently sitting their HSC exams.
“I do shop at Woolies still because the staff are always helpful, and the quality is good – and I like the half-price specials!” Jane says.
