Lunch with Trevor Beattie….

Trev is probably the last of the “famous admen”, whose renown spread way beyond the advertising industry. Despite founding a very successful agency and making a fortune, he’s always been quite indifferent to money. Even when he had very little, I remember him spending it on experiences rather than on conventional possessions. In his opinion, the main reason to make money is to spread it around. This notion was shared by a few of his old schoolmates, better known as UB40. They covered obscure reggae songs, partly to ensure that the impoverished artists who’d written them got a surprise windfall. They truly believed, he tells me, that Red Red Wine was written by a poor Jamaican called Tony Tribe. However it was written by a rich American called Neil Diamond and royalties went into his already enormous bank account. “Money goes to money”, Trevor concluded, “Which is why I’m paying the bill”