Sara got fired in The Apprentice UK Series 4 Episode 8 for alienating customers and not really doing a whole lot more beyond that. Helene and Michael, however, despite sucking (again) are given yet another go at it.
The teams are mixed up. Yes, yes, again. I’m getting tired of saying this because it keeps happening every single week. It’s nice to see how different people work with different people, but this is to the point of silliness. Raef and Claire move to Renaissance. Alex moves to Alpha and is made project manager. Sir Alan doesn’t want to let Michael be project manager for Renaissance and instead appoints Raef.
The task is a tissue television and press campaign to be presented to one of Britain’s biggest ad agencies. The ads will be mini dramas. Raef has done some acting and is thrilled to be doing this.
Lee suggests the brand name Snot. After firing out some more ideas, he gets one that may actually work: Atishu.
Claire suggests I Love My Tissues for Renaissance, who have decided on a campaign featuring little children.
Opposed to a gay-themed ad due to the potential negative public reaction, Alex wants a conventional family.
Raef and Michael believe they’re actors and, therefore, will be directing their commercial.
Claire also likes the task because she’s been a brand manager.
Raef has made arrangements to book TV weatherwoman Sian Lloyd. I’m going to assume that’s an actual celebrity worth booking. He and Michael head to a kindergarten classroom where they will shoot the commercial.
Alex and Lee want to include a sick child in their conventional family commercial, though one of the ones they get will be difficult to get a good performance out of. Lucinda again raises concerns about the approach and isn’t happy about her lack of input.
Raef is pleased with the box design his team has come up with, which is basically just hearts. Lucinda’s still displeased with her team, this time about their decision to have a girl blow her nose on a box. She hates Alex’s management style and considers him useless. Lee asks them to get a grip and work together as her blood continues to boil.
Nick is confused why Sian Lloyd is there. Not only is he confused, but she doesn’t get it either, as she doesn’t consider her image as wholesome as they do. For that matter, after they’ve paid for her and had her act, Michael is unconvinced that her scene is even necessary and wants to cut it to meet the 30 second requirement. The girls are very pleased with the press ad but can’t stand the work the boys have done on the video. Claire doesn’t like that the boys have been playing director while they developed the brand.
Claire will be doing the pitch. The video is a lot better than they’d given it credit for, though I agree with Michael the first part was unnecessary.
Before he goes on, Lee’s practicing his pitch while the others throw ideas at him that probably aren’t helping him any. Not that it matters because this campaign is completely flat and boring as Lucinda suggested. There’s no emotion from the audience.
To make matters worse, Sir Alan didn’t like Lee’s presentation style, and Nick points out that Claire didn’t have any notes and knew what she was doing. Alex calls Lucinda abrasive and upsetting. The one compliment that Sir Alan does pay is to Lee for the product name.
Despite the fact that the other campaign sucks, though, Sir Alan is upset at Renaissance for exactly what Claire said he would be upset about: he can’t tell what their ad’s actually about. With that said, despite the fact that they did much better than the other team at virtually all other aspects of the task, they lost.
Raef tries to pin the lack of a close up shot on Michael, who believes they should both accept responsibility for that.
Sir Alan doesn’t understand the point of Sian Lloyd either, and he didn’t notice her anyway because her scene went by so fast.
Raef has decided to bring back Michael and Claire.
Michael takes full credit for all the things that are good about the commercial. He says he took the lead for it. Raef jumps in to defend himself on this and contradicts himself by claiming that he was the one who made all the decisions, except when they were bad.
Raef is fired for being full of hot air. Based on this task, I’d say this was the right decision, but Michael seriously has to be getting close to expending all of his 9 lives.
Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another recap of The Apprentice UK Series 4 episode 10.