THIS week’s The Apprentice saw the candidates pitch their ideas to promote Finland as a tourist destination to the UK – and I thought it was a really difficult task.
It’s a big task. Meaning there was a lot going on and a lot of mess ups, with Dean’s team focusing on backpackers and Marianne’s targeting the LGBTQ community.
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There doesn’t seem to be that many fights on task then once they get into the boardroom, everybody turns on each other.
Our year, we had a lot of explosions on task but with these guys, there seems to be a lot of tension and issues behind the camera that you’re not seeing. But you can see it when you get to the boardroom.
I wouldn’t want to drag anybody down unless I had to, whereas this year, everyone is a bit more ruthless. Everyone is trying to bash out the competition without caring.
Though the one person who really didn’t impress me was Dean…
Thomas is losing his shine
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I defend Tom every week but this was a bit of a disaster. I do think the execution of the ads was decent but there were elements that were not.
With Tom’s Pride advert, it looked good but it didn’t fit the brief. And that seems to be a common factor every time we have these tasks – it happened before on the toy one.
His advert was showing off Helsinki and Pride, not the country.
He’s a very creative guy and has lots of ideas; sometimes those ideas just runs away with him. In business it’s not just about making them look nice, it’s about fitting the brief and making it right for the consumer.
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That team were shaky throughout. It was a difficult week for Jemelin, she’s another one who I’ve said is quite good.
But I’ve had tasks where the sub-team leader just wants to do what they want to do, which she did – and it backfired massively.
At the end of the day, when others are trying to chip in and give their opinions, she’s saying no no no, and they then lose, she’s in the firing line.
There was also a lack of professionalism from her and Ryan-Mark. Pamela was quite good at staying level-headed.
He was just trying to get his point across, but he’s quite a big character – as is Jemelin – so it ended up erupting. I think it’s unprofessional to do that on a task. In real life, you wouldn’t be able to do that.
Dean the Sheep
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Dean let me down this week. I’m not seeing what I want from him and he’s lucky that he won otherwise he would’ve gone.
I feel like he tried to bring a bit of humour into the ad and I didn’t get it. When he was talking about how good it is, I thought, it’s not good. His pitch was cringey.
I lost a bit of faith in Dean, I don’t rate him as entirely as I originally did. I don’t think he’s very good.
Lewis did a really great job. I really liked that advert. What I like about Lewis is he’s very honest. I can imagine him and Dean are very good friends. But he was very honest with Dean.
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Dean was really confident when he showed the team his advert, then Lewis said he didn’t like it and Dean agreed.
You need to be a leader in this situation and you need to say “I think this is the best logo ever”, if that’s what you actually think. I think he’s a sheep.
Then Corina came up with all the ideas. She was in a really strong position then.
She got stuck in, had loads of ideas, and if it had fallen through, she would have been saying, someone had to step in because you weren’t, Dean.
It’s about outsmarting people and I think he did Corina a favour. Every week she’s getting stronger and stronger and stronger and I thought she did a good job.
Who deserved to go?
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It was between Marianne and Jemelin. You do have to give them credit that they often step up. Jemelin has brought something every week.
Though this time she didn’t work as a team. Taking complete control can be good sometimes, but it completely backfired.
Marianne was a strong contender to leave as well. I’m missing something from her.
Even down to going into the pitch and messing up saying LGBTQ – she messed up the most important bit. It was quite novice.
One to watch
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Lewis is one to watch definitely, he’s getting stronger every week. He’s very good, very level headed and very honest, but is right about what he says.
I loved him in the TV ad and he basically did everything himself. He was in it, he was directing it, he’s a strong character and he’s definitely going to be in the final five.
