Right time for another update on the latest series of The Apprentice as I will cover episode 7 of the current series, which saw both teams come up with a brand of soft drink to sell to the US. So let's give this a closer look and see how they got on.....
So the task saw Lord Sugar split the two teams to work between London and New York so they would work in sub teams and communicate via phone. Team Summit, lead by Bianca, came up with the idea of a fizzy drink, which they called "Big Dawg" (named by James) but the sub-team in London, Sanjay and Roisin who came up the flavours for the drink found it at first to be a bit overwhelming in its taste, but the market research and tastings of the drink in America went down well. They also did a pretty good attention grabbing logo for the drink as well as a decent digital billboard, but the video for the ad was not well received as the advertisement experts said it had no music track on it and overall it was a bit bland (I also thought it was a very bad idea to promote an American drink by putting Solomon in it, who is an Indian-Brit as it seems very out of place and he also happened to be wearing his office gear!). Team Tenacity on the other, lead by Mark (who almost vetoed Lauren's bid to manage the project) came up with the idea of a health drink, which they titled "Aqua Fusion", which tasted overtly of pineapple and received a pretty lukewarm reception during the market research in New York. Daniel and Katy, who worked as the subteam in London, came up with a pretty dull logo for the drink, which was mainly yellow and the words for the drink didn't stand out on the bottle. Meanwhile Mark in New York with Felipe and Lauren, made the video for the ad, which starred Lauren and was directed by Felpie (who got carried away!). As for the pitches to the industry experts, Bianca's pitch went very well but Mark's was letdown by a very dull one-note presentation by Lauren and Felipe (both of whom are lawyers!).
Back in the boardroom Lord Sugar had to sit over both campaigns and decide which one was better, as he was very unimpressed with both videos, particularly Summit's which had no story or structure whatsoever aswell as no music track. However in the end Lord Sugar decided despite having the weaker video ad, Summit were the winners as their soft drink was more marketable to the American public as it had a better presentation. As a result the winning team were treated to a classy meal up in London's Tower 42 (which is the second largest skyscraper in London by the way, and you might guess what the largest is!). And the title of the drink "Big Dawg" got some credit from the industry experts, which James who came up with the name, took some rather smug satisfaction in, as he reminded everyone in the boardroom and Lord Sugar wearily said to him "You just can't help yourself, can you?!". Maybe one day Lord Sugar will finally shut up that arrogant twat that is James as he is one individual you would never tire of slapping!
Once the losing team Tenacity went back into the boardroom, most of the blame appeared to be shifted onto Lauren by Mark, who claimed that Lauren didn't do anything, but Daniel also came under fire for coming up with a very bland logo for the drink so he brought them both back into the boardroom. Lord Sugar was not impressed with Mark's management of the task as he felt he made a fatal error in placing his team mates in the wrong roles, especially as he brought Felipe and Lauren to the pitch who had no strong presentation skills (perhaps it was more Mark didn't want Daniel tagging along with him to New York!). Lord Sugar was also unimpressed with Daniel, who was brought into the boardroom for the second consecutive week as he felt he had really see Daniel do much that well, but he did recognise that Daniel contributed more to the task. Whereas Lauren came under fire from both Mark and Daniel (despite their squabbling amongst one another!) who ganged up on her as they both felt she contributed very little to the task apart from appear in the video and be present at the pitch, where she didn't so well. And in the end Lord Sugar made his decision and he felt that Lauren was not suited to be his business partner so her fired her (with regret) and let the two guys off the hook.
Well I have to say I didn't agree with Lord Sugar's decision this week as I felt in a way Lauren had more to offer than Daniel, who is just morely a loud mouthed confrontational arse and I personally felt he deserved to be fired, primarly because he was primarly responsible for the logo and labelling of the drink which was very poor to say the least. Lauren was also pretty much scapegoated by both Mark and Daniel in the boardroom and Mark also rather aggressively beat Lauren to taking on the project manager post and did it in a way that he would hopefully be able to get the win and save his own neck! This week though Mark and Daniel decided during the task to put their differences aside and try and work together and not against each other, although the fact they were thousands of miles and countries apart might have helped with that one! But once Mark brought Daniel back into the boardroom that facade soon fell away and they were at each others throats again and at first Mark brought Daniel back in "regretfully" but after they started aruging Mark said "I should have brought you in automatically! Because you talk rubbish, Daniel, and if I had a pound for every time you talked rubbish, I would have the £250,000 by now and could go home!". Lord Sugar also threw in his tuppence over how bad the drink was by also slating the yellow colour of the dink as he said "Its look very much like something big dawg has done up against the wall!". And he also had a go at Felipe (who went back to the house by then of course) for directing a "rubbish!" video and having a "Felini moment!" while being so overly fussy during his direction of the video.
So I personally think Lord Sugar made the wrong choice and Daniel should have went this week instead and Mark wouldn't be too far behind him either, although to be fair he is still a very capable candidate (but he is also a rather annoying fanny!) but he made some fundamental errors in the project as he put people in his team into the wrong tasks without first looking at their skillsets. Lauren also wasn't given the choice of becoming a project manager, which she put herself up for and she was quickly dismissed by Mark, who claimed he knew all about advertising (but not from a creative point of view!) and yet it in a way Felipe also seemed to call it for the group to go with Mark as well, so in a way its funny how this quiet lawyer fella actually in his own way has quite a bit of a clout in the decision making aswell! And on The Apprentice: You're Fired, the audience also concluded that Lauren shouldn't have been fired as well as the panel members (including Lord Sugar's scary no-nonsense adviser, Claude Litner). But in the end it comes down to the rather brash old grey haired fella in the boardroom wearing the fancy suit as its his money and his investment on the line.
And that's it for now and I will be back soon with another post.
See you's later!
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