Trevor Beattie is more irreverent than his commercials, and that's saying something.

"No one in advertising has ever, or will ever, inspire me," drawls the TBWA, London, creative director in a still-strong Birmingham accent. "They're a bunch of jerks that write adverts. How can they inspire anybody?"

Suffice it to say that Beattie, "40-ish", enjoys cultivating a rep as the surly old man of advertising. Sometimes, though, you get the distinct impression that it's a bit of a wind-up.

On one hand he scorns those who take the industry too seriously - "it makes me vomit" - but on the other, he derides creatives who don't think advertising is a legitimate profession. "People are always ashamed of it. You don't get footballers denying that they're footballers, or playwrights denying that they're playwrights."

He also scoffs at Cannes - "They're giving Gold Lions to ads for penis extension clubs and tattoo parlors" - but then brags about his John Smith's creative team who, less than a year into the job, garnered Gold honors at Cannes for a five-spot campaign (the next batch is ready to roll). He also cites his own first Lion in '86, for a Bassett's Licorice Allsorts spot through Ayer Barker, London, which boasted the tag: "One too many and you might turn into Bertie".

Despite all his ragging, it's clear Beattie's superglued to the ad world. He claims he got into the business before everyone else wanted to. Of course, that was more than two decades ago and "there's been 20 wars since then".

He started out doing graphic design and photography at Wolverhampton University in the Midlands, down the road from where he was born. He was the fifth of eight kids; his beloved (and late) dad was a car mechanic. Beattie says he's the only one of his siblings not to have a "proper job" like car mechanic or teacher. Just like his dad, though, "I'm a surly git."

As a growing git, Beattie displayed some headstrong ways. During his final college term "I threw all my work away because someone told me you could get a job writing adverts." He compiled a copywriting portfolio, which scored him a scholarship at London agency Allen Brady & Marsh in 1982.

His first major project, for Weetabix - featuring bullying animated skinhead characters in the shape of the famous British breakfast cereal growling "If yer know what's good for you, OK!" - ran for 10 years. "It was crap really," he says.

In 1986 he jumped fleetingly to Ayer Barker and in 1987 moved to Davidson Pearce. But by 1988 the agency had merged with BMP, which Beattie didn't like. "The place is run by planners, not creative people," he grumbles. "They think too much."

He switched to TBWA two years later. Since then Beattie has nurtured dozens of creatives to fruition - "I've got the two best young teams in London in my department. It puts the fear of God in the teams in the middle, and that's great. It keeps them awake at night" - and spearheaded work like Nissan's Micra Bubble Car and Sony PlayStation's Third Place campaigns.