Trevor Beattie at Coventry University

Friday, 1pm. I’m thinking: ‘The world can end after this.’ That’s because Trevor Beattie is about to talk about advertising and big ideas and big ideas that are not big ideas and, of course, political advertising.

As the legend behind FCUK and Wonderbra and a life-long Labour supporter, Trevor Beattie begins his talk by focusing on ideas. In his view, the truly big ideas are as rare as the invention of the wheel and that of the Internet. The ideas we refer to as big are, according to Trevor, small ideas. The ad man himself admits he has never had a big idea in his life. However, Trevor agrees that “without ideas, there isn’t anything else”, because it is the sum of all the small ideas that push the world forward.

“Worry about the little things, because the big things will happen”. Indeed, one should probably concentrate more on getting the details right rather than trying to influence the things that will happen anyway, sooner or later. It is the actual details that make the big things bad or good or great. I say worry about everything.

One of the reasons why I admire Trevor’s work is because it is intriguing. Exciting. And within the highly sensitive media today, his work is even more fun to see. Also exciting is the fact that he is flying into space next year as the first fare-paying space traveller. I am not going to repeat myself.

Anyway, it is good that the world didn’t end after his talk, because I got the chance to talk to him in person. I told him about me and my mates’ plans of setting up an advertising agency and guess what he said. He said “That’s fantastic, go for it.” We also got some good advice from him regarding this matter. I am going to repeat myself: We got advice from Trevor Beattie.

Friday was a good day.