CADBURY'S 'FLAKE GIRL' LOOKS UNRECOGNISABLE FOLLOWING GLITZY STINT IN HOLLYWOOD

When it comes to chocolate adverts, some of the most memorable of the bunch include the promotion for the Cadbury's Flake.

The "Flake girls", as they were known back then, became popular thanks to how they made the thought of the chocolate bar so appealing, and now one of the most well-known advert stars looks totally different.

Janis Levy was known for posing as a gypsy girl walking through a field of sunflowers before riding off onto a horse-drawn caravan. The ad became one of the best-known of the 80s.

It was back in 1985 that Janis made her Flake debut, and she was just 17 at the time. She went onto live in LA for many years, where she mingled with movie stars such as Sylvester Stallone and Joan Collins.

Reflecting on the time, Janis previously told Leaders of Great Britain: "Everybody wanted to be a Flake Girl, it was such a sought-after job. I was just 17, had a bout of pharyngitis, and remember wobbling into casting director Jill Pierce’s office in blue cords and a fluffy jumper.

"They said the copy called for ‘a girl with short blonde hair in a white mini dress,’ but that when they saw me, they changed their minds and decided on ‘a redhead that looked like Bambi'. They called me back for the second audition, I booked the job, and we were on our way to a 20,000-acre sunflower farm in South Africa."

The advert was directed by Barry Myers, and actually went onto become the longest running Flake commercial of all time. Even though most contracts would only last for three years, Janis managed to hang onto the role for a whooping nine years.

Back in the day, chat-show host Des O’Connor introduced Janis as the "most famous face on TV whose name you don’t know", and it was probably true at the time. That's because it led Janis to land roles in up to 50 other adverts - including for Fairy Liquid, Toblerone, Sunday Mail, Boots, Nestea, Asda and TSB.

But the star had a lot to thank the Flake ad for, as it was the iconic commercial that caught a lot of people's attention in the industry. Thanks to its sweet success, Maude Spector, who cast Elizabeth Taylor in National Velvet, bagged Janis an audition for crime drama, Remington Steele, and she was handed the part.

By starring in the show alongside Pierce Brosnan, it gave her the opportunity to make her mark in Hollywood. She later secured a contract with NBC, which led to Janis spending 14 years in Los Angeles, and going onto have a thriving acting career.

Nowadays her life is very different, as she runs a hair extension firm in London called Hair Development. According to the website, the company are the "longest established hair human hair extension and replacement experts in the UK".

2024-07-01T11:56:29Z dg43tfdfdgfd