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Ford turns to Bruni to help sell cars in France

The Local France
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Ford turns to Bruni to help sell cars in France
Bruni takes a dramatic turn by becoming a football coach (in a promotional video for Ford). Photo: Screengrab YouTube/Ford

US car giant Ford is hoping the former French first lady Carla Bruni, wife of Nicolas Sarkozy, can help them crack the French market after picking her to star in their new advertising campaign.

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Ford France has hired Bruni, now Carla Bruni-Sarkozy after her marriage to the ex-President Nicolas Sarkozy, to appear in a new promotional video aimed at persuadingthe French to take a leap of faith by buying a Ford car.

In the video singer-songwriter Bruni decides to ditch guitar after a disastrous performance and instead take up the role of a football coach for a men’s team.

The video, only available online, is aimed at hoping French viewers take their own dramatic turn in the lives and opt for a Ford car, presumably rather than a Renault or Citroen.

Viewers however are invited to answer a series of questions at the end of the video, such as “Do you prefer the sea or the mountains?”, before the finding out the link between Bruni and Ford cars.

Currently Ford scoops up just 4.35 percent of the French market, but bosses are hoping Bruni can push it towards 5 percent.

"She's a woman who went from top model to singer and actress, and from champagne socialist to wife of a right-wing president," Fabrice Devanlay, Ford France's external relections director, told Reuters.

"Sure there's a risk, because she is marked by the political side of her marital status, but her international celebrity is an incredible driver for the visibility of our campaign."

Perhaps they are hoping her relationship with the man known as the “bling bling president” can have some influence on French consumers.

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