"Sometimes he finds it hard to say why the idea is good, it just defies description" said a former colleague at BBH. "Then he's likely to say, `This is right and that's the way it is' You can't argue with him Who knows why he is good at it, but he is And he tends to get most of the decisions right. What am I trying to say? I think that I'm trying to say that he may be not very nice I think working for him might be quite difficult. He's quite egocentric, quite hard in some ways."What is certain is that he is unmovable when it comes to his creative judgement. He takes up to a dozen important decisions each day, and once he has made his mind up, he will not be moved. "He has become the face of advertising and by and large he has been extremely good for the business.

But I sometimes think that if you examine what he is saying, it's perhaps not as full of substance as one might think. Sometimes the presentation is immaculate, but the content is not all that great."Well, you might say that that's advertising, and a journalist whose beat is the advertising industry had this to say: "The agency is very brand- orientated, very life-style orientated, in a way very Eighties I think that's a bit like Hegarty, really It's all to do with appearance, context and style. You cannot fault any of his attitudes, and he is an extremely personable man, always thoroughly engaged and down- to-earth - but..."I can only think of one unpleasant thing to say about John," said a friend. I know it is a means to an end, and that's all."From talking to Hegarty's friends and associates, you get a sense that he is too good to be true. They said you've got too much money to be a socialist and I'd turn round and say isn't that what you fought for? Isn't that what you wanted me to do - be successful? For Christ's sake, my father was a park-keeper!"My first impression of Hegarty was wrong, in the sense that he has never gone in for a conspicuous display of wealth. He is a millionaire several times over, and his salary as chairman and creative director is very large indeed - over £300,000 a year, according to industry insiders But he does not flash it about.

He and his wife, Karri, have lived in the same house in Highgate since they were married in June 1970. They have two children, Elliot, who is at the London International Film School, and Laila, who is at St Martin's College of Art and Design in London.The Hegartys have not bought a house in the country, nor a holiday home abroad. "What being successful means to me is that I don't worry about paying the phone bill Money has liberated me. If I want to go somewhere, I pick the phone up and get on a plane, and that is really the only way it has affected me The trouble is that most people allow it to trap them I think I have disdain for it.

What I objected to about the old Labour Party is that when I became successful, it rejected me It was because I was earning too much money. What we really need now is a leader who will take the potential of this country and make us believe in it."Was this Tony Blair, I asked?"It might be Tony Blair, but sometimes I wonder whether he is shackled to a party that wants to live in the Seventies. There is export-led growth, inflation is down and there is a greater understanding of the mood to make and design things well. The whole process of what you make and how you sell it has changed. "The thing about Margaret Thatcher is that she came along after Callaghan and told people that they could be successful People believed it and they went out and they succeeded.

We appreciate now that they succeeded on nothing: they built paper empires and a lot of it was founded on very unsound things In the Nineties, there has been a real change We can now make things that really work. Blair is a product of the Eighties, more particularly of Thatcherism, and he is undoubtedly addressing the "brand issue", so preparing the ground in a number of policy areas that, in about a year, the new model will be ready for the road.And Hegarty, of course, is keen on new models. The brand issue has changed." It may all sound a little glib, but you can begin to see the strands of a campaign forming. Having heard Tony Blair begin his offensive into Conservative territory three weeks ago, at the Spectator lecture, one imagines that he might go along with a lot of this. They have got to make people say to themselves, `Now I can realise my potential.' If they don't do that they will fall again."After the war and beyond, the Labour Party was on to a winner with its message - the cause of education for all, health for all.. I mean, they couldn't fail But we've passed through that Now they have got to address a different issue. People feel that they are not talking about the right things. Instead, it says that we must continue to make the playing field more level - redistribute wealth.