You can pretty much see the entire boardroom (actually probably more than they show in the actual episode) on yahoo’s apprentice site.
What the hell is with Chris? He seems to burst out of nowhere each boardroom with a screaming dialogue over something or another. He’s just drawing unneeded attention to himself.
I kind of agree with sending both teams into the boardroom, as both commercials were terrible. The marathon one, as ridiculous as it was, could have been at least made into something semi-acceptable, even if it did rip off a seinfeld episode.
That porn movie. Oy. What in the world were those bozos thinking?
I disagree. She knew Trump was looking for a team-vs-team motif, not internal team fighting, and Erin delivered. She deflected the argument back to Kristen’s team, which was exactly the right thing to do. She may be a skanky ho, but she’s calculating, manipulative, and smart. Exposing Bren’s weakness would have exposed and weakened herself. If she can manage not to piss anyone off, she’s final four material. Now she’s got a win under her belt.
I also disagree with the Raj Ratings (even though they are smart and perfect and hilarious!). I thought Erin made it to Middle School by keeping her team together and keeping her mouth shut in the boardroom.
Jon definitely dropped a rung for me, because he’s just prissy and annoying.
I think that’s a brilliant point. Because we see Donnie’s ad demons do exactly that. They took apart each ad from a demographic perspective. Wasn’t this the same issue that got Danny in hot water over Burger King?
John is now on my short list of favorites. I agree that John’s task 1 win wasn’t especially impressive in and of itself, but then again, it was a fairly easy task. I am always impressed with people stepping up to be the first team leader, though. That’s a gutsy move. And he’s consistently impressed me with his willingness to step up and take risks. He tried to work with Brian to make things better for the hotel task. He didn’t have to do that. He proposed the idea for the ad this week. And so on. I have a feeling that even if he does make a big mistake, he will own up to it, and most importantly, defend the reasons why he made that choice. (And the fact that he’s awfully good looking and plays the drums doesn’t hurt.) On the negative side, I don’t like how he commented on Brian’s height, and he may be at risk for being obstinate and arrogant. But we’ll see. Oh, and I think any male has a lower chance of winning this one because the previous two winners were male.
I still love Audrey, but she needs to learn how to handle the boardroom. She shouldn’t have interrupted Kristen to defend herself. Kristen was sinking herself just fine. I said in another thread that her youth might work against her. I think her boardroom behavior might have been an example of this. She didn’t make a cool assessment of the situation, and act strategically. A more mature person probably would have realized that she was in very little danger of being fired, and that Kristen’s justifications for attacking her were really dubious–especially given that there were so many clear mistakes on Kristen’s part. Rather, she felt the need to defend herself. Tana, on the other hand, was quiet. Hopefully, Audrey will learn quickly how to deal with the boardroom. Besides, I like her potty-mouthed confessionals.
Angie and Bren continue to be favorites, in spite of the vegisexuality thing. Stephanie and Kendra have moved up in my rankings a bit. Alex is still a whiny geek. Craig and Tara seem only to be able to gain camera time with hats and afros. Michael at least seems to have some sense of humor about last week’s debacle.
I’m quite tired of Erin’s mugging, face-making, and head-bobbing. Did you notice that when she made her “we’re all a family” speech, she used the same head movements that she used in her “brilliant legal argument” speech? If she wants to be a TV personality, she has a thing or two to learn about speaking on camera.
And Chris–either he’s making a deliberate attempt to sound strong and decisive and failing miserably, or he is dangerously psychotic.
I wholly agree, but as I said last week, the tasks themselves don’t seem to lend themselves to the kind of higher-level marketing decisions that Trump should be interested in. But it’s entirely possible that Trump spends way more time looking at the tapes of the team meetings where these things are discussed than we ever get to see. Did the teams even discuss the target audience? Neither team seemed to even realize that this product is aimed at women.
I’m still marveling at how completely and thoroughly Kristen misunderstood the concept of the runner ad–not just the humor, but the fact that it was a play on the way refreshments are handed to runners during a race. Guess her boyfriend’s not a marathon runner, eh?
CCL I don’t think anyone’s expecting the teams to come up with finished usable ads. Rather, I think they’re supposed to come up with a usable concepts, and a videotape that’s kind of a sketch or first draft of what the final ad should be. Last season, the team that made the winning NYPD ad did just that.
Thanks for the compliments. One thing to keep in mind regarding Erin and her place in the rankings. My irrational dislike of her is approaching Isiah Thomas or Billy Packer levels. She just irritates me worse than if I was only allowed to clean myself with a belt sander. So, that dislike makes it’s way into the ratings. Short of her unveiling an “I [heart] Reaganomics and the Chicago Cubs” tattoo, it’s going to be very hard for her to redeem herself in my eyes.
Ah, thank you, Mullinator, I respect your hate, and Erin’s place in the rankings. Perhaps my blind loyalty can counter your forces, and bring equilibrium to this winter’s HOOGE EVENTS. I promise not to go JenFan crazy.
Boy Dove must have been pissed! Those guys pay millions to make their product look good and one team makes a commercial that would draw fire from the FCC, the religious right AND the Secretary fo Agriculture! No wonder Trump was out front shilling it. Oh well. The cucumber commercial definitely had a “Twist!”
Bren didn’t take a ton of heat because Trump knows how good he is and how much his team really seems to respect him. I think this will drive Bren back into his comfort zone.
John is walking away with this thing in Kelly like fashion (the golden boy early on). Did you here Trump when he was firing Kristin? He told her she had a strong team. A team with John. Then he tried to think of another name to say but couldn’t. That’s good for John.
Angie must have a filthy mouth. Not only did she go Chris Rock on Kristin in Week 2, she has the bleeps left and right in her confessionals. I like her, but will Trump hire someone that unpolished?
Am I the only one who heard George ask if Chris was a homosexual? Or had Chris already made his statement and then George asked what he had said? I thought Chris started out with discussing how he didn’t approve of including homosexuals in the ad. Still over the top, but not out of nowhere. Did I miss something?
I think Michael made up some ground (still the walking dead, and he will be taken to the boardroom EVERY time that team loses, but I think he may recover for a while). Michael also opposed the silly chef hats idea. Donnie was harsh on the hats! I loved it.
Other than Michael, I feel some true comraderie between the members of BS. Two weeks in a row, the only person they really wanted to get fired was Michael. None of the catty in fighting of last season. Even when they lose. Refreshing.
Erin was wise not to make a case against Michael in the boardroom Iit invites the question what did Michael do to lose THIS task?. The answer was, if you listened to him, they wouldn’t have screwed up so bad. Erin isn’t as dumb as everyone says. She played it right. She knew Michael would be unlikely to screw up so bad again and figured she’d shove the knife into the other team and keep some numbers. However, she gets little credit for her surviving as PM. But Trump did make a positive comment about her leadership. I think she will dodge PM for a while and stay in the game until late.
Did Krisitin’s commercial give anyone flashbacks of FRIDAY NIGHT VIDEOS? All that was missing was a star wipe and fade to black.
Tana got praise from Carolyn. GO IOWA! (it is Iowa isn’t it?) That bodes well for her. Trump listens to Carolyn MUCH more than George (even though in his real business he probably only spoke to Carolyn once a month and George EVERY day!)
Amazingrace, speaking of people who don’t understand that they need to look out for future employment opportunities, what was the deal with “ACTRESS”? You are a struggling commercial actress. You need them more than they need you. No one has to be there to “receive” you. WHO ARE YOU? Being difficult does not attract future employers. You may get some dates out of this, though, because your hands can do dirty things to a cucumber!
I wish that I could have seen this part. My boyfriend made me miss the meat of the episode to go get a slurpee. From what I hear though, that is seriously bonheaded. You’re an actress in New York. She’d better get her apron and order pad out of the closet because she’s going to need it.
This is a guy who has gotten through his career by making people believe that anger equals intensity and sincerity. He’s about as deep as a mud puddle. People like that think that going on the attack will intimidate the other guy and keep him from challenging what is said or done. Also, if every time you ask someone a question he comes back spewing venom, you tend not to ask him questions in the future. That way, he can hide his ineptitude almost indefinitely. If he tries it directly with Trump, he’ll get his ass handed to him in a paper sack.
Unless John exposes himself to a kindergarten class, he’s the next apprentice.
I slept through the boardroom scenes last night, waking up just to see good old Kristin getting into the taxi. Good! Don’t let the door hit you in the tush on the way out. She was this season’s typical dark-haired bitch: overly made up, abrasive, controlling, brittle and with a self-concept totally out of synch with reality. You don’t become a director just because your boyfriend is. . . and you’ve hung around locations with him! She had no clue what she was doing and she wouldn’t listen to anyone who did have a clue.
The Cucumber spot was atrocious. Not because it was quasi-pornographic, not because it was badly shot and edited, but because it did not sell the product. You had no clue what the product was and what its benefits were.
Trump was right to bring both teams into the boardroom. But he should have fired one person from EACH team, IMHO.
I would not be to harsh on the actress, I don’t think she was ever really going to leave, but I don’t blame her for using that trump (pun intended) card to get over on the BS team.
I think the harshness is justified. The diva fit that she insisted on throwing was unnecessary. Worse, I could tell that she wasn’t really angry and she was never planning on leaving, so she really isn’t that great of an actress,is she?
I just tuned in for the first time this season…after the crapfest that was season II I haven’t been bothering to keep up with it regularly.
That said, I nearly fell out of my chair at how bad these commercials were. Haven’t the latest hamsters ever bothered to flip on the telly? There’s ONE word I associate with Dove-moisture. Moisture, moisture, moisture…put a little fizzy lemon-lime “twist” on it and you have your commercial. It’s like how I automatically associate Oil of Olay with the theme “anti-aging.” They should have focused on “moisture” plus some combo of “crisp” or “soothing.” Not to mention the fact that I haven’t seen very many skincare commercials with a “story”-mostly it’s lots of people with really good skin in bright lighting with really good film against a very white background-think Lubriderm, Nivea, Oil of Olay, Dove and for the product in question I don’t think a “story” idea would have worked out that well-I mean, they are trying to sell a new scent, not a particular result (like anti-aging) so it’s better to use images that portray the smell rather than try to sell a particular story-line. I used to work in marketing, albeit in IT & B2B, but whenever my boss said “outside the box” it was a synonym for “same type of stuff with flashy graphics” as in outside the box is the same brand-name theme re-packaged for the gawping masses so they think they’re getting something different but they have all the background history of the previous marketing efforts. Or in our case, gawping electronic components purchasers.
Disagree. She had to wait around for two hours with nothing to do, no one to help her. Imagine yourself in that situation, you’d be pissed as hell and making sure they understood it. When they come waltzing through the door is she supposed to be, “Oh hey, there you are! I was really worried about you guys, I can’t wait to get started.” I think BS got what they deserved out of her.
I agree that the “mini-movie” thing sucked for the particular product, and I blame that squarely on Donnie Deutsch. He was the one who told them to make a 30-second film, an extravaganza. If the theme he gave them didn’t work for the product, whose fault is that? And you’ll notice that the real commercial didn’t go in the mini-movie direction, nor was it especially out of the box, and it focused on faces, which was apparently a major sticking point for Net Worth’s ad, being’s the product is a body wash. So I have to think the pros couldn’t do much better with that set of guidelines than the Apprentices did.
And I rather think they must have discussed demographics at some point, zut. Magna kept bringing up Will and Grace. They knew who their target audience was–the people who are likely to buy freakin’ body wash. The same people who make Will and Grace a hit. Women and a very small subset of men, in other words. I mean, really, how many guys like Chris buy Dove anything? How many of them buy body wash as opposed to bar soap? None I’ve ever seen. The only men I know who even use body wash use it because that’s what their wives keep in the shower.
Mine does. He buys his own, I think it’s a Gillette brand, smells manly and all that.
I was worried about my Iowa Girl (Tana) for awhile. It looked like she was agreeing to an alliance with Kristen. I’m not sure if she was nodding yes to get Kristen out of her face, or if she really meant it.
What’s up with the editing this season? If you’re not PM or bitching about the PM, you’re not getting much screen time.
The format seems the same as the last two seasons – recap of last week, people coming back to the hotel room, new task, Trump on a job somewhere dispensing wisdom, task results, boardroom.
Why does it feel so much different? Is this crew so bland that the editors can’t find any decent footage to use?
I agree with CCL. Body Wash is a rather feminine or metrosexual product.
That’s why I don’t think Cucumber Porn is the worst ad in the world. The type of people who use that product are not the type of people who complain and boycott.
The problem, I guess you encounter, is that Dove Soap (the main product of the Dove Company) is a general audience product and this commercial would be associated with it…
I still think vegetable porn was a better commericial than sticky facial scrub during the marathon.
Uh…Body Wash is liquid soap. There’s nothing feminine about it, assuming you’re not using a rose petal scent. I did a quick check of my friends (all male), and 11 of 13 of them use body wash. If you called any of them “metrosexual”, they’d take it as an insult.
