Chatting with Denise Van Outen

Read the full story about what Denise was doing at Goodwood, and the new car freshness product Febreze Car on Beauty and the Dirt

Above: this is how Pieter Hommez, of the R&D Product Research team, explained how Febreze Car sends a hunter molecule to stalk and attach to stinky molecules to change their shape and stop our brains from recognising them.

As part of the launch for Febreze Car, we journalists were given a great day out at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. Brand Ambassador, Strictly star, actress and presenter Denise Van Outen came and chatted with us individually in between taking a ride up the hill in the ‘Febreze car’.
  Denise seemed very down to earth and happy to chat. I asked her about the self-penned one-women show she’s taking to London, and she looked almost bashful as she said: “It’s been well received.” She describes Some Girl I Used to Know as ‘Shirley Valentine for my generation’ but it takes place in a hotel rather than a kitchen and she dances and sings as well as talking to the audience.
  So we’re at Goodwood, does she have an emotional attachment to cars? I ask. She says “I’ve dated lots of petrolheads and men into bikes, but to me, cars are something to get you somewhere. Coming here, I can see it, the passion people have.”
   I ask how she prefers to travel, thinking she’d say in the back of a chauffeured limo, but no, she prefers to drive herself. She says: “You know everyone has their bad habits”
   What does she think about the woman driver stereotype? She says: “I’ve been on quite a few track events and I know some amazing women drivers. I’m quite easily distracted, though. I can see why a man might get annoyed if I’m at the wheel pointing out a really nice pair of shoes!”
   How important is it to have a fresh-smelling car? She told me “I’m quite judgmental about other people’s cars, if someone has a stinky car, you don’t want to get in it. You learn a lot about someone from their car.”
  Her own challenge is that she usually drives with her four-year-old daughter Betsy in the back. “So she has a biscuit and there are crumbs everywhere!” she wails.
  Sounds like a job for the Febreze Car Vent Clip.