Close-Up: The hot seat - Paul Tullo, Tullo Marshall Warren

Campaign, Friday, 13 November 2009 12:00AM

Name: Paul Tullo

Job: Board creative director, Tullo Marshall Warren

- You've got five hours left before the world explodes. What do you do?

OK, it's the obvious ... the family, the wife, the kids. Then I'd look through my whisky collection and savour that rare one I was keeping for a special moment. I'd look at the art I've been collecting and reflect on the futility of it all. I'd check my post and look at my bank letters ... have a little snigger. Lastly, I'd PANIC.

- What's your best joke?

A blind bloke walks into a shop with a guide dog. He picks the dog up and starts swinging it around his head. Alarmed, a shop assistant calls out: "Can I help, sir?" "No thanks," the blind bloke says. "Just looking." Thanks, Tommy.

- What's your biggest fear?

Oddly, it's letting the side down. I've always been a team player.

- When did you last cry and why?

At the recent funeral of a colleague and close friend, Mick Costella. He was one of those inspirational people you meet very rarely in life who makes a deep impression on everyone and everything he touches. He was taken from us in his prime, and, as I write this, I'm shedding a tear again. (God I miss you, Mick!)

- Who is your hero?

Apart from Mick? Alex Ferguson. When I'm trying to explain the need to produce brilliant work, I tend to overuse the "football analogy", but I really admire people who put excellence above all else.

- Name one thing about yourself that few people know.

I'm good at yo-yo.

- What do you see when you look in the mirror?

Bags under the eyes, grey hairs (few), wrinkles, my dad, a misspent youth, a six o'clock shadow, a bit of last night's chicken tikka and a bloke who needs to go to the gym.

- Which historical figure do you most identify with and why?

Hernan Cortes, the Spanish conquistador. He arrived on the main coast of Mexico in the 16th century with 500 men. In order to ensure that he could not go home without total victory, he ordered all of the ships to be burned on the beach. Now that's what I call confidence. I try to ignore the fact they killed hundreds of thousands of native Mexicans.

- If your office was burning down, what object would you save and why?

The layout pad. In the end, it's the ability to think of good ideas and communicate them that is the fundamental to my job (such as where are we going to go now our office has burned down?).

This article was first published on Campaign