Authenticity Isn’t a Trend, It’s the Future of Advertising

“We’re moving away from influencers and back to real, actual experiences,” said Tara.

“People are having experiences with their friends at home. They see a product and want to try it for themselves, but it’s not about demonstrating it to the whole world. It’s maybe just having a close moment with their friends.”

For someone whose job is to make drinks look impossibly perfect for advertising, Tara's words might sound surprising. Yet in a market saturated with staged content and curated feeds, her pursuit of honesty (and imperfection) in imagery is exactly what today’s audiences are craving.

From bartender to industry pioneer

Tara's journey began behind the bar. Starting her styling career as Simon Difford’s PA and in-house bartender at his cocktail publishing company, she stumbled into drinks styling when photography for his books and website required someone who understood both the bar and the lens.

“On pretty much my first day, he said we’d be doing photography,” she recalled. “I quickly realised that while there was crossover with my bar skills, what was needed for photography was very different. It was a light bulb moment, but also a very steep learning curve. The industry was dominated by generalists or specialists in food styling. Taking a more specific, intentional approach to drinks has been very positive for brands.”

That hybrid skill set — creativity, technical craft, and practical bar knowledge — would eventually help Tara carve out an entirely new department in commercial production.

Today, she’s widely recognised as one of the leading specialists in the field.

Building confidence in a sceptical industry

Breaking through in what was — and in many ways still is — a male-dominated industry wasn’t straightforward. When Tara first moved from bars to commercial production, her presence on set often raised eyebrows.

“Men on set would say they had a mate who did drinks work,” she laughed, “referring to prop masters from 90s beer campaigns. I kept my head down and learned that what hospitality taught me — thinking on my feet and problem-solving — would become essential when remaking the same drink 30 times.”

In a space where creative credibility was often gatekept, Tara's precision and deep understanding of drinks culture became her quiet rebellion. She wasn’t just styling beverages; she was proving the artistic and commercial value of a role that hadn’t existed before. Her focus on realism helped shift brands away from the 'just make it look wet' era toward imagery that feels lived-in and emotionally resonant.

As one of the first women to pioneer drinks styling as a recognised craft, she opened doors for more diverse talent in an area long defined by sameness — a belief she continues to champion through her long-standing collaboration with Another.

“Having great relationships with everyone is crucial”, she said. “When I’m prepping in a different time zone, with Another, I can trust them to be just a phone call away. You have more freedom to be creative because there’s so much trust built up.”

Together, they’ve built a working culture that mirrors the authenticity Tara champions on screen — one driven by collaboration, respect, and individuality.

The art (and chaos) of the perfect pour

Styling drinks for the camera is equal parts chemistry, choreography and comedy.

“I remember a project for Smirnoff, one of the first I did with Another,” Tara said. “There was one singular drink we were shooting the whole day — a spritz. It had raspberries in it, which are quite fragile. I don’t recommend ever trying to reuse a raspberry. They don’t like it. They cry very sad raspberry tears in the drink.”

And then there’s ice.

“Ice is probably the single most difficult thing to control on set. It has no mercy.”

Each serve is meticulously carved and rebuilt to stay camera-ready, demanding a level of timing and coordination that only experience can teach. “I know the limitations of what the ice does,” she added. “It’s about getting the rest of the crew to understand pacing and timing on set to accommodate it.”

That discipline was pushed even further during the recent Don Julio campaign, which saw Tara juggling time zones and rooftop shoots across Mexico City and Barcelona.

“The preparation was challenging because I was working on another part of the project in Mexico City while also prepping for Barcelona on UK time,” she explained. “There were many drinks and many iterations of those drinks in different locations.”

Why authenticity is the new luxury

For brands, authenticity can’t remain just a creative talking point, it must shape campaigns that mirror real life and resonate with real people.

“With the explosion of social media, we’ve seen a lot of throwback culture coming back faster and faster,” she said. “But I think what’s happening now is that people want things to feel more personalised and more authentic. Influencer culture is weird for me; I find it difficult to operate in that sphere.”

What she’s seeing instead is a quieter, more meaningful kind of aspiration.

“People are craving experiences because there’s this fatigue about being chronically online. Maybe it’s too expensive to go to a bar all the time. So we’re seeing more people creating special moments at home — curating experiences, making something bespoke with a couple of products they’ve seen.”

For Tara, this shift demands a new kind of storytelling — one that stops performing perfection and instead celebrates the craft, connection and culture behind it.

“It’ll be interesting to watch how drinks advertising develops,” she concluded. “How we can communicate those moments without working too hard to create something that should feel organic.”

And that’s the challenge — and opportunity — for brands today: to make authenticity not just an aesthetic, but a value that truly shapes how we create, connect and consume.