Trevor Beattie, hails from Balsall Heath but has his sights set on outer Space.
Best known for, "misspelt swear words and cleavage", - French Connection's, FC海角视频, and Wonderbra's 'Hello Boys', he has three words of advice for emerging talent: "Just Be Honest".
To young people he says, "The chances of forming your own company now are much better than ever. Enthusiasm, energy, ideas, these matter. You need an iron constitution and to be prepared to put up with a lot of flac. "
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'Surprising' is my take on Trevor Beattie and his inspirational lecture given at the Birmingham Institute of Art & Design's new Parkside building last Thursday.
He is full of surprises....not to mention a wholesome streak of humanity.... as a guy who's not averse to using the ballpoint of his pen to drive his views home.
A long time Labour supporter, he created the , masterminding their 2001 and 2005 general election campaigns.
He tells how, on revealing the Hague campaign to Tony Blair, with his Cabinet and press team ranked behind him, they all silently gave it the thumbs up. Following a minute's consideration Tony, who'd not seen his team's reaction, said, "It's clear me and you are going to be seeing a lot more of each other", with everyone behind him waving their hands around in a silent shout of approval.
Last week Trevor took great pleasure in showing the infamous ,denying any knowledge of its creator.
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This 'went large', as they say, in the run up to the last general election. Since then, he said, campaigns have become political sprints to the election finish line....with all the parties poised, waiting to see who breaks first, in their attempts to avoid a satirical standoff.
His own journey started in Moseley Art School which 'changed everything'. Moseley Swimming Baths became a favourite haunt, with Trevor noting the , saying he would 'willingly work for free', and his Uncle Len, was already drumming up support to from imminent closure with the aim of restoring this Victorian building to its former glory.
Jumping in at the deep end there, was, as Trevor put it, "something of a metaphor for me and five other 'herberts' who are flying next year on the first Virgin Galactic space flight".
Perhaps his own space quest has been motivated by his search for perspective on the 'big idea' that is 'us'. "I think we are the biggest idea there's ever been," he said on Thursday.
"I've never had a big idea. I believe in having lots of - millions of - small ideas. You might as well have lots of little ideas and stop beating yourself up. Sometimes a small idea can go a long way. If you think of it if you got all the small ideas together and put them in a jar you would have a 'jar full of ideas'!"
At a young age he'd had his interest captured by ads such as, 'It's frothy man',created by John Webster together with the jingles of Rod Allen of Allen Brady & Marsh, who 'made everything rhyme', including, 'Call it Spearmint, Call it Wrigleys Call it Gum'.
He was inspired, like so many others at the time, by Apollo and the space landings. Sitting with his brothers Pete and Paul in the family living room he used to watch produced in 'technicolour superanimatronic colour', although aired in black and white.
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"What's not to like, 'Dr Venus', a hot blonde, you're Steve Zodiac with a transparent friend called Zoonie, who drives a rocket. That's where it started. And a few years later real people went into space."
His school project, 'The Space Race' , gave us an insight into the workings of the young Trevor's mind whilst a pupil in Class 2A. Graded by his then school teacher 'B+ Good Work ' Trevor says, "I was gutted, B flipping plus, I thought I'll show him."
Handwritten in ink, as Trevor explained to younger members of the audience, it ended:
"What of the Future?
Now that the Apollo project has come to an end what of the future? More moon landings? Or perhaps orbiting space labs or maybe Russians putting men on the moon? Who knows?"
"If every journey begins with a small step, then my journey started in Wolverhampton at Wolverhampton Polytechnic. Lecturer, John Lowe, changed my life. John taught me there was a such an industry and such a job as advertising.
"He said I was a better writer than a drawer. He said you need to go to London.
"I thought I had just come from Balsall Heath to Wolverhampton - why did I need to go London? If Brum is a city built beside a river of Balti, London was hewn from pure advertising.
"It's the Mecca of advertising. If you're going to make it in advertising you have to make it there. I got lucky. Very lucky. Exclusively for Birmingham I am going to show 3-4 pieces of work which I am really proud of. These mean more to me that misspelt swear words and cleavage."
The first piece on his list was created for Unicef. He was inspired to write a letter from the 'Children of the World' to the 'most important person in the world'. Unicef loved the idea.
They wanted to send it to the 'most important person in the world' and they wanted to make it into a film. They asked him who he'd like to direct it. He suggested Hugh Hudson who'd directed 'Chariots of Fire' and Unicef got him. Trevor spent 6-7 weeks on a world tour with Hugh, culminating in a meeting with the 'most important person in the world', Nelson Mandela.
The letter, more like a poem, concludes -
"We're Children.
Don't treat us like kids.
You were once us.
Give us the chance to become you."
Having worked as Chairman of international advertising agency,TBWA, he decided it was time, 'to stand at wicket with nothing against his name', setting up his own agency, BMB - Beattie McGuinness Bungay.
With this move he found great freedom. "The freedom to hire whoever I wanted regardless of their CV. I found myself hiring the people I liked to drink with - it kinda worked...I was determined that anyone who joined could be who they really wanted to be."
One of the people who came to BMB was Duncan Jones, formerly known as Zowie, son of David Robert Jones, or David Bowie, and his first wife, the model, Mary Angela Barnett.
Duncan wanted to do something he had never done. He wanted to make a film, later directing, with Trevor producing and Sam Rockwell starring.
Made for £3m, it was shot on the Bond stage at Shepperton Studios. On release it was shortlisted for a BAFTA for 'Best Outstanding Direction by a Debut Director'.
We sat glued to the screen as the video showing the moments leading up to the announcement of Duncan being awarded this BAFTA was aired.
Following this success, Duncan is currently in Hollywood shooting 'World of Warcraft' having directed 'Source Code' released two years back and with plans to make 'Mute' currently in the pipeline.
The , was a highlight. "With Carling outselling its rivals, Guinness and Stella put together, it's so well known there's no need to use the word, Carling, on the black label, so we used the word 'Belong' instead."
In another anecdote Trevor recounts how he purchased the 'Downing Street' sign for £5k at auction, worrying about how he was going to tell his family he'd bought 'an old sign from Westminster Council for five grand'.
He was surprised when a second Downing Street sign came up for auction, openly speculating about his tactics...'should I bid for it and monopolise the Downing Street sign market, or bid up the price so that the second one could not go for less than I had paid...' In the event he forgot about the auction, later finding out that this second sign had sold for £31.5k to a former aide of John Major!
He set up the in honour of his parents and through this he met astronaut, who'd so famously walked on the Moon.
"The next day I had my picture taken with Buzz Aldrin and Buzz actually tweeted the picture. Of course I got Buzz to mark my project, 'The Space Race' from Class 2A at school. Buzz noticed I had misspelt Neil Armstrong's name on the first page..." It didn't take long for Buzz to award Trevor's project, 'A plus (minus)', reflecting one small spelling glitch and one giant leap of faith.
Next year Trevor is going into space with Richard Branson and five other 'self-selecting herberts' on the Virgin Galactic... "It is a single airplane with double fuselage We will go five times higher than did when he jumped from 128k feet.
Apparently Richard Branson's team are currently testing the engines. "Richard Branson is not really a billionaire business tycoon, he's an astronaut in waiting. Of course it helps that he owns and operates and the train set."
Watching some video for the Virgin Galactic, Branson brings it home, saying, "Dreams inspire reality. Going into space gives you the chance to look back and see our fragile earth, the beauty of it. Surely that's something every single one of us would want to do if they had the chance."
On the subject of dreams Trevor says: "If you have a dream, whatever it may be, don't wear it as a badge. When you get the chance incorporate it into your life. Don't bang on about it all the time but have it present because you will be surprised by the opportunities that will present themselves."
He can hardly contain his pride in Birmingham and the region. "I believe in Highspeed train travel. I think we should re-name New Street, 'Birmingham Brand New Street', when the work there's been completed. I think the changes happening are brilliant.
And he finishes with a flourish, " . I believe it currently resides with a car dealer in Glasgow. I'd love to buy it and bring it home. That would complete the All-New BullRing!"