The godfather of punk seeks new Passenger

Eight aspiring musicians will get the chance to record with punk legend Iggy Pop. Photo / Supplied

Iggy Pop is the latest in a string of famous faces to front for a telecommunications company.

The 62-year-old punk rock legend has signed to state-owned phone and broadband company Orcon, joining Telecom's Richard Hammond and new mobile player 2degrees with Rhys Darby.

The promotion invites aspiring musicians to audition via the company's Facebook page or internet site for one of eight spots to re-record his classic track The Passenger.

Images from auditions, plus the final recording, which will made over an internet link with Pop at his Miami studio, will be used in a television commercial to screen in November.

Orcon's marketing manager David Joyce said the choice of Pop for the promotion - dubbed "together incredible" - was down to his iconic, trans-genre status that is popular across a range of age groups.

The campaign is the first for Orcon by its new advertising agency Special, the people behind the Green Party's election advertising.

Although notorious for his drug-fuelled antics during the height of punk's popularity, Joyce said Pop was surprisingly easy to work with.

"The concept behind this is a tangible demo of the incredible things that ordinary, everyday New Zealanders can do with the power of Orcon broadband."

Customers of any internet service provider are able to enter, with the finalists connected to the Orcon service for the recording session.

It is not the first time Pop has been used as an ad frontman. In Britain a shirtless Pop danced while proclaiming he had "insurance on my insurance" with a car insurance operator.

The ad was pulled after complaints to the British Advertising Standards Authority that Pop and his musician pals were ineligible for insurance with the firm.