[AUK] The Advertising Challenge

TV Programme: The Apprentice (UK)
Season: 5
Episode: 5
Date I watched this episode: 22/04/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: Less than 1 day.

Team Leaders: Kate (Em-3) and Kimberly (Ig-4)
Winner: Empire
Ignite Boardroom: Kimberly, Lorraine, Phillip
Fired: Kimberly
The One That Got Away: Phillip

There are many reasons people watch this show: for the drama, for the ineptitude, for the tension. And these are all good reasons, but perhaps the most appealing thing about this show is the really happy, emotional moments; seeing people positively interacting with each other and succeeding. I compare this episode to the 2nd episode last year ("A Dirty Job") where we really wanted Raef's team to win. Here, it was Empire, led by Kate, who swooped to a truly triumphant victory.

Kate led a great team, and really struck positivity, making sure to avoid being negative about anything. She comes across as positive in general, although she's never been in the boardroom and I'm not sure how she would cope with having to get into a fight with someone else. She also has the advantage of being very beautiful (though not exactly my type...) and so whenever she says anything, all the guys are laughing at her jokes and generally trying to be very nice to her.

The interaction in that team and their celebration when they won was quite heartwarming. It was particularly apparent in the bit where they were in the filming location and also when they were designing the cereal box. I actually thought the advert was pretty good and it certainly had the audience smiling. The only possible negative was the way Yasmina reacted to being removed from the recording; she took this way too personally and needs to control her emotions!

The way the episode was cut together was also very good; I particularly liked the phone call that Alan had with the executives from the ad company. I was pleased to not really see much of Noorul as everyone knows now he is a dead man walking. In fact I'm quite surprised he still sticks around and seems to think ironing shirts is very important for him to win?!

Now onto the other team's pants...or something. I just think the whole thing got very distorted from Phillip's original idea. First we had "It's so natural you feel naked but with your pants on" which was actually not too bad, then we had "dance in your pants" which was just silly with Phillip's dancing, and finally this stupid Pantsman thing. I really do think though that Phillip was the culprit here, and may very well have manipulated the task to get someone else out. That aside, he was the only one who actually came up with an idea which was within the rules of the competition. He just acts very unprofessionally, going into a sulk and a tantrum sometimes, and Nick Hewer obviously hasn't realised the severity of this.

I only have positive things to say about Kim. She managed the team very well including some very big personalities. She took the attitude of "everyone's ideas are good", made the team into a democracy while taking a back seat and then summarising and moving forward. Kim went out dignified and although Phillip did have a go at her for bringing him in, she was very nice about it when she made the decision. I think she will do quite well for herself.

I think Kim has a great management style and the only problem was that it led to no one stepping up and saying this is a bad, bad idea!! Except for Lorraine of course but she was just too indignant and emotional about the whole thing, not very businesslike and I don't think she would do well in Alan's organisation. She should have gone this week. Mona also didn't do herself any favours this week; she was very unprofessional against Kim's criticisms and then ended up making a bit of a mess of the presentation anyway.

This was the best episode of the season so far, and I really enjoyed it. The atmosphere is bound to take a dip but I hope it resurges at some point before the end of the season!