The Apprentice, week 8: Ghazal - you're fired!

In episode 8 of the Apprentice the two teams were led by Ghazal and Jadine, the task was to create the branding and supporting advertising for a pair of trainers and to present their ideas to an advertising agency before Sir Alan Sugar made the final decision on who won and more importantly for the contestants who lost.

The girls team, led by Ghazal, struggled to come up with a big idea, this was despite having team members Katie who has worked as an international brand manager and Naomi who is an advertising manager. In the end they settled on the brand name of 'Jam', which has it's obvious musical connotions.

However, the girls group was split down the middle over the central theme behind their big idea which was changed at the last minute to 'music is everything' the decision was largely due to Katie taking control of poceedings and Ghazal following.

None of this pleased Naomi and Kristina. The usual predictable cat-calling following with Katie suggesting she'd like to fire Kristina 'in more ways than one'...and suggestions from the other half of the group that perhaps Katie was out to get Ghazal fired....

To be honest, I'm not sure that was the case here as Katie genuinely was pleased with the groups promotional material. I honestly think much of the back-biting which goes on all of the time is designed in part for self preservation should things go wrong in the Boardroom - if that happens the said person can turn round and say 'I told you so'.... A prime example of this in episode 8 was Tres in the boys group who never seemed to stop complaining.

The boys eventually won out( I dont know how ) with their appallingly branded 'Street' trainer and no doubting who was the star of the show and that was Simon - if this was purely a talent contest then he'd win it hands down, though to be fair Tres did play a large part in the group's win.

The fear of losing is of course what makes the show such good tv as the contestants are all desperate to become Sir Alan's assistant and so they will do and say almost anything to win which is why The Apprentice is fantastic viewing.

As for Sir Alan Sugar he was on top form again and apart from giving out his usual no nonsense verdict at the final inquest, he once again gave us all an insight into the way he thinks about business, this week marketeers got the 'SAS treatment' when he said 'For once I agreed with an advertising agency'...which suggests that dealing with Sir Alan's advertising account would be a nightmare.

Ghazal - "you're all talk and no do" you're fired