Eurovision winner Lena lands Opel advertising deal

Opel has reportedly enlisted the help of Germany’s sparkling 2010 Eurovision Song Contest winner Lena Meyer-Landrut for a new advertising campaign meant to burnish the ailing carmaker's frumpy image.

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The music video for the 19-year-old’s latest single, “Touch a New Day,” features the raven-haired songstress driving a 1970s model Opel through the sunny German countryside, which may have inspired the car company to approach her for a deal, daily Süddeutsche Zeitung said.

While Opel declined to reveal the exact nature of the partnership, the paper reported that the move was a clear attempt to improve the brand’s “desolate” image.

The General Motors subsidiary was mired for months in an international conflict over German and European Union aid following GM’s bankruptcy last year, and was almost sold off before the US company decided to keep it after all in April.

A recent poll at the Bergisch-Gladbach University of Applied Sciences named Opel the “most boring brand by far,” the paper added.

Opel recently tried to regain lost ground by offering lifetime guarantees on new cars, a move that Germany’s advertising watchdog, the Centre for Protection against Unfair Competition (WBZ), called blatantly untrue last month.

Thus the beleaguered company hopes to harness the “fresh and unconventional” energy of Meyer-Landrut, who charmed European viewers with her song “Satellite” during the Eurovision Song Contest, winning by a landslide.

But if Lena, who some critics have warned could become a one-hit wonder, falls from popular favour, Opel could have another PR disaster on its hands, the paper warned.