I would’ve liked working with Paul Arden

Reading time 3 minutes

I would’ve liked working with Paul Arden, even if his acquaintances said he was self-centered, sarcastic, chaotic, and always seemed to be in a bad mood.

Arden is a part of modern marketing and advertising and he was linked, both as a creator and as a director, with some very important ads and advertising campaigns of the last 35 years.

"We are all advertising, all of the time. Even the priest, with all his or her fervour, is advertising God." Paul Arden

Arden, who was Creative Director for Satchi&Satchi in London, was quite an intelligent fellow and his books somewhat contradict their author’s reputation in the sense that they are very precise, orderly and efficient, be sides being brilliant like him.

The book that I like the most from Paul, which I consider a sort of bible for those who wish to work in marketing and publicity, is  It's Not How Good You Are, It's How Good You Want to Be: The world's best selling book.

I  strongly recommend it (it’s not expensive to buy).

This publication is quite useful not only to advertisers and publicists, but also to those who are looking for a new and effective way to see things, especially as an entrepeneur.
I always advise my clients to read it because this book, besides useful, is very interesting and forceful in its basic concepts. It’s also graphically extraordinary and well-written (short, immediate, direct); unsurpassed in the examples it proposes, the message gets through clearly and directly.

Here are some fun, interesting, apparently simple (and even trivial), bits that you can find on this book that may give you a grasp of this great art director.

• Arden recommends presenting ideas, projects or offers on a Tuesday. He says that a client is still not very concentrated on work on Mondays; on Thursdays, he’s starting to get tired, and on Fridays, he’s rather thinking about the weekend. So, according to Arden, you still have Tuesdays and Wednesdays left and he prefers Tuesdays as presentation days, adding that it’s better to do it as early as possible. “Presenting on Tuesday forces everyone who comes afterwards to try and surpass your presentation.”
• Another thing he writes is that in order to sell an advertising campaign you need a proper advertising campaign. Thus, it is necessary to set up a “show” to present the “show” itself. So the idea is to develop two to be effective.

Click on photos to enlarge them.

Paul Arden also wrote another important book called: Whatever You Think, Think the Opposite.

In it, Arden tells us that you must question your own ideas, making you go forward and break molds in order to find something new. What you might call thinking out of the box. Theories? 

Yes, in part, because when we see the success of this Creative Director, his book advise is successful when put into practice.

For those who already know Paul Arden and his works, I’ll wait here some of your comments, for those of you who decide to buy the book, I’ll be expecting for you to get back here and let me know your thoughts.

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Biographical Note
Paul Arden (7 April 1940 – 2 April 2008) was a creative director of Saatchi and Saatchi and an author several books on advertising and motivation, including Whatever You Think, Think The Opposite and It's Not How Good You Are, It's How Good You Want To Be.