This show is a really good Survivor clone. It is a closer reflection of the real business world. The heel is Donald Trump who appears during the show as Mr. big shot surrounded by yes men.
This episode involves advertising which is very different from the business world. The two teams were selling Jet Cards used to rent personal jets. Mr. Deutsch of the Deutsch ad agency was the boss. He told them at the beginning he wanted “big ideas, swing for the fences, and think outside the box.” He wanted a flashy campaign.
The men came up with a conservative campaign while the women promoted the planes as giant dicks. The women were judged the winners because they had a big idea and made a great presentation. It was a case of style over substance. I don’t think the company would actually pay real money for that idea, but they liked the effort and enthusiasm. It seems to me their idea would’ve been better for an MTV audience of males 15-23 instead of the target demographic of males 40-60.
Anyway, after the men jobbed, they had the boardroom meeting and Jason was the target. He previously interrupted the great Donald Trump in the last boardroom meeting. This time Donald accused him of being disloyal because he chose to blame Nick for the failure. Only Donald is the one who forced him to pick 2 people to blame, so Jason didn’t have much choice. The main reason Jason was fired was that as the team leader he chose not to meet with CEO Bill Adler because he thought they didn’t have enough time for a meeting and wouldn’t gain enough value from the meeting. (Hadn’t he ever heard of a conference call? Where is the middle ground?) The women met with Mr. Adler and the only information they got was that they wanted to be “wowed” and “nothing is off limits.” Sounds like the same platitudes that came from Mr. Deutsch.
Jason didn’t deserve to get fired as much as Sam. Even though I liked him on the first episode, this time he fell asleep on the job which is inexcusable to me. Troy, Amy, and Heidi all did good jobs this episode.
One idea is that if Nick is this “zen master of presentations,” why did they let Kwame do the talking? If Nick is such an expert, he should’ve done all of the speaking himself.
Next week back to the regular time Wednesday at 8.
The second episode was last night. There's still 14 contenders left.
I started watching it interested in how the different management styles would interact. I realized last night I was just watching Survivor, except in a different location and with no bikinis.
Has there ever been a group of contestants on a reality show that have been LESS likable? I get that it's a cutthroat type of atmosphere, but geez.
I don't know if any of these guys has a clue about anything. And I have NO clue how Sam is still around. He's just slimy. And I'd have fired his ass right after the grandstanding during the first boardroom firing.
I'm surprised at how the women are performing. They certainly get the fact that sex sells, from them whoring themselves out to sell lemonade (twenty bucks for a glass of instant lemonade? COME ON), to their "planes as penis" ad campaign, they're acting more like I half expected the men to.
I'll probably check out another epsiode or two, or at least until Kristi gets fired.
"It's the four pillars of the male heterosexual psyche. We like naked women, stockings, lesbians, and Sean Connery best as James Bond because that is what being a [man] is." -Jack Davenport, Coupling
I'm totally hooked (and does anyone think perhaps Donald watched a couple episodes of RAW once upon a time? He seems to channel Vince quite well).
I'm wondering how much Donald's actually trying to fire the worst person, and how much he's trying to avoid the "Big Brother" mistake of getting rid of the tension too early. It's obvious you've got to keep the two heels (Amarosa and Sam) around or else the show will get too boring. You just can't make the Survivor mistake and have the heel actually WIN the big payoff. Unless you're HHH of course.
I should have a call as to who will win the next couple episodes. I will call a final seven of Sam, Erica, Amarosa, Kwame, Bowie, Troy, and the chick who looks like Sharon Stone. When do the teams get merged anyway?
The coolest part of the show? A huge New York nerd like me can constantly annoy my wife by pointing out where every shot is. And I work two blocks from where the guys were selling lemonade!
I wonder how much money George W. Bush gave Paris Hilton.
What takes The Apprentice a bit higher than Survivor is that for each episode, there's a sales lesson to be learned. The first episode was all about location. This one? Always talk to the boss -- not an employee. Actually, with the advertising campaign, Jason squandered the Versa's chances by not talking to the CEO of JetCard.
Mind you, I thought BOTH commercials sucked, but the ladies was the lesser of two evils. The men should have been disqualified for the "thumbs up" shot in their's. That is SO small market.
My bet on the next ep is that Versa wins -- that way, Sam sticks around more, you have your gecko-y heel... and Protege doesn't have to pull a Drake and lose one on purpose.
Originally posted by MoeGatesI'm totally hooked (and does anyone think perhaps Donald watched a couple episodes of RAW once upon a time? He seems to channel Vince quite well).
I'm wondering how much Donald's actually trying to fire the worst person, and how much he's trying to avoid the "Big Brother" mistake of getting rid of the tension too early. It's obvious you've got to keep the two heels (Amarosa and Sam) around or else the show will get too boring. You just can't make the Survivor mistake and have the heel actually WIN the big payoff. Unless you're HHH of course.
I should have a call as to who will win the next couple episodes. I will call a final seven of Sam, Erica, Amarosa, Kwame, Bowie, Troy, and the chick who looks like Sharon Stone. When do the teams get merged anyway?
The coolest part of the show? A huge New York nerd like me can constantly annoy my wife by pointing out where every shot is. And I work two blocks from where the guys were selling lemonade!
I think the merge will be at 10 people just like the real Survivor. I also can't think of anything memorable that Bowie has done, so I'd go with Heidi instead (she's doesn't look like Sharon Stone, she's the one who looks like she's in her late 30's still hitting the clubs trying to pass as early 20's.)
I also like the New York locations. I thought the women were selling at the theater district around 48th St and 7th Ave. I saw they bought their lemonade at the Duane Reed pharmacy.
I can understand the formality of meeting with the CEO to kissass. But, I don't see the usefullness. He wouldn't have told them to use giant dicks. Would he have said anything to change the direction of their campaign?
I saw the first episode of this and they hooked me with the whole not having commericials for the first half hour. Otherwise I would have been channel flipping like crazy and forgotten about it. Then I stayed hooked for the second half of that ep because of the firing. I thought the guys were going to get rid of the black guy(sorry forgot his name) because he put them in a shitty location. The men had no chance in the lemonade contest anyway.
I missed the second show, but it doesn't sound like I have too much catching up to do...Oh yeah, I saw Trump on Leno and he said that one of the girls from the show has done soft core porn.
(edited by Santa Sangre on 17.1.04 1220) Sir Loin don't care if it's cold or old or covered in mold/It's for the shorteez
Originally posted by skorpio17 I can understand the formality of meeting with the CEO to kissass. But, I don't see the usefullness. He wouldn't have told them to use giant dicks. Would he have said anything to change the direction of their campaign?
I work in advertising, and the first thing I learned (and I learned it the hard way) is that creatives don't design advertising to please themselves. They design advertising to please the CLIENT. When you don't do that, then you wind up with an ineffective campaign, you wind up having to start over from scratch, or, in the case of Jason, you wind up without a job.
The JetCard execs didn't tell the women to use the planes as giant dicks metaphor. What they did tell them was that they wanted a flashy campaign, big ideas, and that they essentially had no boundaries. Whether or not their result was an effective campaign is debatable, but had they not met with them, they may have wound up with a similar campaign as the men.
"It's the four pillars of the male heterosexual psyche. We like naked women, stockings, lesbians, and Sean Connery best as James Bond because that is what being a [man] is." -Jack Davenport, Coupling
I wasn't going to watch because the Donald is such a dick but I wound up watching the first episode and then wound up watching the second episode when I found out that Kristi has done an episode of Red Shoe Diaries - I almost missed taping the opening of CSI - it's Survivor "Corporate style" - there isn't much else on Wednesday nights so I guess I'll keeping watching.......
5 Time 5 Time 5 Time 5 Time 5 Time Wiener of the Day Runner-up
Originally posted by skorpio17 I can understand the formality of meeting with the CEO to kissass. But, I don't see the usefullness. He wouldn't have told them to use giant dicks. Would he have said anything to change the direction of their campaign?
I work in advertising, and the first thing I learned (and I learned it the hard way) is that creatives don't design advertising to please themselves. They design advertising to please the CLIENT. When you don't do that, then you wind up with an ineffective campaign, you wind up having to start over from scratch, or, in the case of Jason, you wind up without a job.
The JetCard execs didn't tell the women to use the planes as giant dicks metaphor. What they did tell them was that they wanted a flashy campaign, big ideas, and that they essentially had no boundaries. Whether or not their result was an effective campaign is debatable, but had they not met with them, they may have wound up with a similar campaign as the men.
Tammy and the women already had the idea of dicks before Amy and Erika met with the client. I don't think the meeting changed the women's campaign. The men already heard the "outside the box" stuff earlier. Maybe they would've paid more attention hearing it again from the execs. Anyway we all agree they should have had a meeting even a time-wasting one, just to look good.
To those who missed the first 2 episodes, CNBC will be airing reruns this Thursday and Friday at 9PM.