TRYING to spot what on earth adverts are selling helps fill the gaps between television programmes. If an advert is wilfully obscure or teasingly takes its time, it'll probably be for a car. Either that or a bank.

An advert doing the rounds now is a fine example. Fiery explosions fill the screen and drops of rain fall. You wouldn't want to be around during such a shower, because the droplets appear to be of mercury. They wriggle and turn into little shapes resembling sporty cars. Then the face of a long-dead rock icon looms into view as the voice-over states: "The Audi TT - designed under the influence of Jimi Hendrix."

Many adverts nowadays look as if they were designed under the influence, usually of a bottle or two of the hard stuff, or at the very least after a bright ad executive put vodka on his cornflakes.

It's hard not to be impressed by the ingenuity of these ads, the technical skill and the vivid imagination, all put to such empty use. This Audi advert is among the cleverest yet one of the most cynical. It grasps after an alternative cachet by riding on the back of a brilliant, troubled rock guitarist who died more than 30 years ago.

And what does "under the influence" mean? Perhaps it really does imply that the Audi designers listened to Jimi's musical pyrotechnics while they knocked their car up. Crosstown Traffic, perhaps, or maybe a burst of All Along The Watchtower. It's perfectly possible that the American model was designed while the engineers nodded their heads to Hendrix's star turn at Woodstock, his astonishing version of The Star-Spangled Banner.

It may just be that some smart-aleck advertising types have hi-jacked the lost spirit of a guitar genius to flog a few more cars.

Jimi Hendrix always cut a dashing figure, with his chiffon scarves, crushed-velvet trousers and an afro haircut that massed about his head like an exploding cloud.

Hey Joe, the first single by his group, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, was an instant hit in 1966. As the Guinness Rockopedia recalls: "Its tale of murderous revenge, combined with Hendrix's electric dandy look, polarised opinion along generational lines: parents spluttered apoplectically at his TV appearances, as Hendrix became an icon of social and sexual liberation for their offspring."

And now he is being used to flog expensive cars that most people couldn't afford this side of a Lottery win.

Early in his career, Hendrix was known for his mad showmanship, playing his guitar with his teeth, using the microphone stand to play slide guitar, and generating cacophonous feedback. Once, at the Monterery Pop Festival in 1967, he set fire to his guitar.

Later, Hendrix tired of this reputation, feeling it got in the way of his music. He had never been happy with how he was promoted, objecting, for example, to the way his Electric Ladyland album was released in Britain with naked women filling the cover.

A career of short, concentrated brilliance ended on September 18, 1970, when Hendrix was found dead at his London flat, having choked on his own vomit. His last message, left on the answering-machine of his manager, Chas Chandler, was: "I need help bad, man."

You won't find that in the Audi advert.

This business of using rock stars to promote cars set me thinking. Here, after a high-level advertising conference held within the confines of my own skull, is a suggestion. How about a car using Van Morrison, perhaps to be known as the Gloria GTI? It runs like a dream some times, then other days it won't even start. Instead, it sits on the drive and glowers at you.

Updated: 10:43 Thursday, June 27, 2002