Eva Herzigova in Beattie's Wonderbra ad
TREVOR BEATTIE, the advertising guru behind Wonderbra and FCUK will be in conversation with Coventry on Friday 14 May. He will discuss his rise as one of the country’s leading advertisers from his decade-long stint as Creative Director and Chairman of TBWA/London to setting up his own agency, Beattie McGuinness Bungay (BMB), which now has Carling, IKEA, McCain and Selfridges as clients.
Over the past two decades, Beattie, has been responsible for a string of extremely visible and talked about advertising campaigns. He achieved lasting notoriety in the 1990s via Eva Herzigova and Wonderbra’s “Hello Boys” poster campaign.
A life-long Labour supporter, Beattie masterminded the ad campaigns for the Labour Party in both 2001 and 2005 General Elections. His stark re-launch of high street fashion chain French Connection UK as FCUK managed to even outshine Wonderbra in the PR stakes.
Organiser and founder of the Coventry Conversations, John Mair said: “Trevor is a tour de force in the world of advertising and is one of the most innovative people working in the industry today. His attention to detail, eye for a great story as well as an original take on a product, makes people sit up and take notice and I am looking forward to find out what makes this ‘local-lad-made-good’ tick.”
Beattie will also talk about his Birmingham roots and his commitment to the area, which included an offer to evict the Wolverhampton councillors who threatened to remove a 106 year old woman from her retirement home.
As well as creating the PR and marketing campaign for Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic Space Tourism Programme, Beattie has booked his place to become Adland’s first-ever fare-paying Space Traveller in 2011.
The Coventry Conversation with Trevor Beattie takes place on Friday 14 May at 1pm in Coventry University’s Ellen Terry Building, room ETG 34. Entry is free and open to all.
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