Paul Arden: Ain't life a pitch?

Spending a couple of hours in the presence of Paul Arden is not only invigorating it is inspirational... although it comes as something of a shock to walk into a living- room decorated with a gravestone and a framed painting of Adolf Hitler. But then Arden, one of the great creative minds of British advertising, is even described by his close friends as "totally off the wall".

He is the man behind such Saatchi and Saatchi campaigns as "The Car in Front is a Toyota", the visual puns of the Silk Cut ads, and The Independent's own "It is - Are You?" Now - at the age of 63 - Arden is becoming better known than his catchphrases after the phenomenal success of his first book, It's Not How Good You Are, It's How Good You Want To Be.

The clever subtitle - "the world's best- selling book by Paul Arden" - could be justified on the grounds that it is actually the only book by Paul Arden. But the bestseller claim has become a self-fulfilling prophecy and is typical of the ambition that the writer wants to instil in his readership.

He implores them to "achieve the unachievable" and assures them that being fired (as Arden has been five times) can be a "positive career move".

Arden commends Victoria Beckham for understanding the value of branding and setting no limit on her aspirations. As a teenager, she said: "I want to be as famous as Persil Automatic." Arden writes: "Laugh at it as you may, it's this highly original imagination that got her where she is today."

Advertising types might not be everybody's idea of lifestyle gurus but Arden defies any stereotype. He wears a sports jacket and brown brogues but has been listening to The White Stripes for two years and is planning to toboggan across Iceland in the snow and the darkness.

If he was still making commercials he says he would defy the advertising vogue for being "deliberately silly" and instead be "very honest and very clear". "That would be different," he says.

Arden is constantly seeking originality. He once addressed a major conference by hiring an actor to speak in "gibberish" for three quarters of an hour, while he stood nearby displaying meaningless charts. Arden believes that if he had delivered a conventional speech his international audience would not have paid attention. "They didn't know what was going on but they will never forget it," he says.

On another occasion he gave a lecture with a naked man in tow, in order to show that a human being is a blank canvas. It takes courage to take such risks but risks, he says, "are the measure of people".

For Arden, the book was a step into the unknown. "I'm not really a writer, I'm an ideas person, a visuals person," he says. "I don't claim to find words easy."

His product is distinct from other life improvement manuals. It is illustrated with ad-style images (such as a photo of the empty plinth in Trafalgar Square and the caption "It Could Be You") and the snappy slogan-writing that helped make his name ("Without Having a Goal It's Difficult to Score"). Some of the advice is radical, bordering on the reckless: "Being fired... can show initiative", "Knowledge is the opposite of originality", "Blame no one but yourself", "Do not seek praise in your work; ask people if they can help make it better".

Most of all, his target audience is a youthful one, the drifting teenagers and students who are unsure of their roles in life or their potential. "I was really trying to get to youngsters. I think some of the early stuff in the book can be quite practicable," he says. "If youngsters at sixth-form had that, it might just help them a little bit and give them a confidence in themselves."

Arden himself grew up in a council house in Sidcup, east London, as the son of a commercial artist. He was "unable to learn" at school and - until the age of 40 - "always thought I am completely stupid". He realised otherwise when his talents turned around the fortunes of an ailing advertising agency for the second time, showing that the first had been no fluke.

"I am not against university," he says. "But they have got these grants hanging about them... and then they have got their mortgage. You are always tied down, you are not free."

So far his message has proved especially popular with Americans, helping to push sales beyond half a million. He says: "The Americans are open to self-help, they are open to therapy. It's the Woody Allen thing. Whereas the English; we don't admit that we need help."

Arden, you feel, would like to offer advice to his son Christian, 40, who built up the Po Na Na nightclub chain to 50 venues before it went into administration. "I want to [help] but I cannot impose myself on him," he says.

Arden and his wife Toni have three homes, including the immaculate central London apartment the couple have retained for over 20 years a short walk from the Saatchi offices (which he left in 1992 after deciding he was unable to make it the "best agency in the world").

Mrs Arden is not keen on the Hitler picture and turns it to the wall at every opportunity. But her husband, who bought it in a Hungarian market, cannot bring himself to ditch it. "I'm not a Hitlerite but the image is so darn strong," he says.

The slate gravestone (which stands alongside a stunning collection of original photographs by Irving Penn and Sebastiao Salgado) bears the inscription: "I Am The Carver Of This Stone/What I Carve Is What I am/I am This Stone."

Arden thought about putting it in a field at his country home in Sussex. But the stone was too heavy and the inscription isn't his epitaph - he just liked the calligraphy. Anyway, he has plenty of living to do. The Life's Creative Cycle pie-chart in his book defines the ages 75-85 as "Youth Regained". Alongside Arden's jazz collection are CDs by the likes of Tricky, Morcheeba and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, bought from Soho music shops where he likes to ask assistants to sell him the sounds that they most like to listen to. His father died last year at the age of 98, having produced some of his most stunning artwork in his nineties. The pictures have been lovingly collected in a book that Arden would like to get published. On the cover he has embossed the word DAD in Biblical lettering, with a small "e" inserted between the first "D" and the "A".

Arden runs a film production company in Soho. He has just realised a business project to sell hemp oil to a major supermarket and is planning a major lifestyle change in the new year involving an office and a secret project. He is also the part owner of a farm in Iceland, where he goes to fish but dearly wishes it would snow. "To go across the country in a toboggan in the winter with warm clothes, Thermos flasks and a sleeping bag is my dream," he says. "It's not as dark as you imagine."

'It's Not How Good You Are, It's How Good You Want To Be' is published by Phaidon Press, £4.95