Black eyed freeze

It all started out well. In January, Black Eyed Peas frontman, back-office operator and Fergie sidekick Will.I.Am announced on Jay Leno’s show that he was going into the auto business. Six months on, it’s not looking too flash.

Marketing types call it ‘brand leveraging’. Sometimes it works really well, for example when Cherry Ripe and Tim Tam names start turning up on ice-cream shelves. Other times, not so well, like Harley-Davidson perfume, Bic knickers and Smith and Wesson bicycles.

It can be a bit dicey when the brand is oneself, but it can also pay handsome dividends, as we saw with the recent sell-out success of the Posh Beckham Range Rover Evoque.

But one big problem with getting a very big name for yourself in show business is that people start telling you you’re a genius and you start to believe the hype.

At the top of his game, about to set off to a coaching gig with the UK rendition of The Voice, the former William Adams, a boy from a tough ‘hood in east LA, told an excited Leno his new IAMAUTO venture was all for the greater good of mankind, “coz I wanna bring jobs to the ghetto that I come from”.

What does he plan to do it with? He’s come up with something that looks like the love-child of a DeLorean and pig…

So, Leno asked, all your own work? No, said Will.I.Am. “I went to Chrysler and got a whole bunch of parts to where it’s still certified as a legal vehicle on the streets.”

Except that, as of last weekend, it ain’t a legal vehicle on the streets. Stopped by LAPD for having no licence plates, he was cited for failing to provide proper documentation for it. It didn’t have plates because was it was also unregistered.

He knew the car wasn’t street-legal, he told police, but he just couldn’t resist taking it for a burl. The car remains impounded until it gets its affairs in order. Specs, release schedules etc, it seems, remain IAMAUTO commercial in confidence.

Oh, and for a bit of extra gloat, it’s worth noting that the London Sun, that mega-resourced commercial mainstay of the British chapter of the world’s largest media organisation, referred to the car as ‘his DeLorean motor’.

This story took about 10 minutes to research on the web. It required no voicemail hacking.