Lexus should be so lucky

SUPPOSE you're a car company renowned for making your motors big. Quiet, endlessly reliable and full of eco-gizmos, naturally, but still big.

You then do something that's been in vogue with big car makers for ages and launch a small one, but you don't want to be embarrassed by it looking so, well, small. Need to make it look a little larger? No problem. Just hire a pintsized popstar to promote it.

That's the impression I got today after looking at the pictures accompanying Lexus' genius idea of getting Kylie Minogue to promote the CT 200h, who in return will get the Japanese company to sponsor her 2011 tour. Nothing wrong with that - Seat is, after all Shakira's latest collaborator - or Kylie herself, whose particular brand of not-at-all-inspired-by-Daft-Punk dance electropop actually sounded brilliant on her last album. But she looks tiny next to that car!

Belinda Poole, Lexus director, explained the tie-up by saying: "Kylie is the perfect ambassador for Lexus and the new Lexus CT 200h."

"Kylie has the energy, style and exceptionally popular public profile that will reach directly to customers new to the Lexus brand."

Readers old enough to remember Kylie in her gold hotpants days will already know she's done this sort of automotive promotion work before, when Ford scored the PR coup of the Noughties by getting her to pose with the StreetKa . To this day I still won't drive a StreetKa because it's the first image that springs to mind when anyone utters the phrase "girly car", but it and Kylie were made for each other, because it's as sprightly, good looking and stylish as she is. More importantly, it was small and actually looked as though Ford had tailor-made it just for her.

Putting Kylie next to the CT-200h doesn't work because the evidence presented above doesn't make it look bigger - it just makes her look smaller, and despite my best efforts I can't help conclude she's still the more stylish of the two. With the StreetKa, it was a partnership of equals.

To this day, I cannot picture Kylie Minogue driving anything else.