When it comes to side hustles, few know more than Sharon Strzelecki. From volunteer trainee indoor cricket coach to assistant netball umpire – she’s done it all. But, among all these side hustles, it was time for the undisputed queen of Fountain Lakes to find a “front hustle” – enter Bowled & The Beautiful.
You’d be mistaken for thinking you’d slipped into an alternate universe if you read that paragraph out of context. However, B&T thinks you’d be hard-pressed to find a single Aussie who didn’t understand every word this journalist just scribbled together. Sharon is a cultural icon, a character derived from the mind of the genius Magda Szubanski, who appeared across Big Girl’s Blouse and became a household name as the ill-fated, Warnie-loving, netball-playing friend of Kath & Kim.
Szubanski doesn’t offer her iconic character up to many, confessing that she “is like [her] twin spirit; we go through the world together”. However, in a tell-all interview with B&T, she shared how when Google Ads and Emotive came calling with an epic proposal for a cheeky new B2B campaign to highlight a suite of AI-powered tools, she couldn’t possibly say no.
Sharon, played by Szubanski, fronts the new campaign, which shows her using a range of ad tools to find customers for her ‘Bowled & Beautiful’ hairdressing business. The campaign showcases the tools and how easy it is for businesses to set up and use them to find new customers. It’s so easy that even an accident-prone indoor leg-spinner and small business owner from Fountain Lakes can do it.
“In 25 years, I’ve not really used her. It has to be something that I think is cack funny. It has to be a no-brainer, and when they came to me with Bowled & Beautiful, I went: I love it. I go very much on instinct with that sort of stuff. If it’s tickling my funny bone, it just makes it a joy to do it. There really is a joy in it,” Szubanski told B&T.
“We need a bit of joy in the world at the moment. If you’re gonna do something like this, why not make it creative and fun? It was great to collaborate. It was a very collaborative process. And I really enjoyed it”.
According to Szubanski, Sharon was the perfect candidate for an ad of this nature. With Sharon being so “challenged” in so many aspects of her life, Google Ads sends the message that their new tools really are that easy; even Sharon can do it. “If Sharon can do it, anyone can. It is that easy”.
“She doesn’t always succeed in a lot of things, and you see shooting goals. She’s a little small business battler, and she’s done it right this time. Maybe it’s because she got away from Kim,” Szubanski joked. “She finally got away from that toxic, narcissistic, co-dependent little triangle and got out on her own”.
“I think Sharon’s perfect – anyone who is feeling hesitant about how it works, it’s like, honestly, it’s Sharon proof. Therefore, really anyone can do it. As she says if I can, youse can too”.
Audiences today are so time-poor, and getting their attention is harder than ever before. The campaign intertwines entertainment with a strong and informative message that engages modern audiences – whether they have a need for the product or not.
“So you could look at the business problem and show up rationally – explaining it. But you’re never going to get the attention of this audience – and you can’t take that attention for granted in this day and age with so much content. Everyone’s so busy. So by tapping so authentically into Sharon’s world and bringing it to life in something that’s so revered and loved and weave Google products through it, it becomes quite literally part of the entertainment. Hey, all of a sudden, I’m willing to give up a few minutes of my time here. And that’s the difference,” said Simon Joyce, founder and CEO at Emotive, who coincidentally received his own Bowled and Beautiful makeover.
In all the hilarity of the original script, Szubanski was able to workshop her own ideas, leading to quite a bit of ad-libbing on the day.
“Magda was just genius on the day; some of the lines and some of the builds are what have made this piece. But equally, just a massive shout out to Google for backing something like this – it’s very hard for brands and clients not to have full control. When you’ve entered long form, you’ve got to step back a little bit and trust the creators that you are working with. They gave us that space and that opportunity, which was incredibly bold of them,” said Joyce.
And make the piece it did! The feedback has been coming in thick and fast, with Szubanski’s Instagram post reaching upwards of 10k likes and commenters calling for the storyline to be made into a movie.
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“Did I know this was an ad for a product I didn’t need from the beginning but still watched the entire thing anyway? Youse bet,” said one commenter.
“LOL where can we watch a 30min uncut (pun, not sorry) version ploise,” said another.
“Friends of mine who have seen everything I’ve done, they’re calling me going, ‘Oh my God, is hilarious’. People are so glad to see Sharon back,” Szubanski told B&T.
So what about Sharon resonates so deeply with Aussie audiences some 13 years since she last made an official appearance on our screens? According to Szubanski, it’s all about that optimistic battler spirit that connects with audiences perhaps now more than ever before. “No matter how tough things are or how many times she gets knocked down, she gets back up again. She tries, and she just wants things to work”.
As Sharon would say, it’s like when “Eisenstein invented lighting, and then we trapped it in a bottle”. “You couldn’t design it if you wanted to. I can’t tell you how many people still stop me in the street. It’s a long time on, but new generations are watching it, and that keeps the character alive”.
