Team Bret: Summer Sanders, Darryl Strawberry
Team Holly: Maria Kanellis, Curtis Stone
Ears/Eyes: Junior & Ivanka Trump
Task: Create a new Snapple flavor and design the label; create a 30-second TV ad for it and a three-page print ad. Judging will include originality, creativity, branding, and charity integration. Winner's charity will receive $250,000.
Last week:
Michaels is happy to get Summer Sanders and Darryl Strawberry on his team. Strawberry tells us he wants to redeem himself.
Peete tells us she's hoping to get Sanders; she's visibly disappointed to get Stone and Kanellis instead, but tells us she'll take whatever help she can get. Kanellis is eager to talk about the TV and print ads right away, and persists in making suggestions even after Peete tells her that they really need to focus on their new tea flavor for now. They'll develop their creative concept based on the outcome of their taste-test at the mall.
As a diabetic, Michaels wants to do a diet tea. He wants to use cinnamon and passion fruit, both of which are good for regulating blood sugar levels.
Stone is helpful to Peete in the flavor selection, advising against using "winter flavors" (like cinnamon?) for a product that will be sold in the summer. Her first choice is passion fruit and strawberry - "Compassion Berry." I think coconut is also mentioned, though it doesn't make it into the final product.
So they both like passion fruit. Cool! Did I mention that they can't use the same flavors, and will have to negotiate with each other for the flavors they want? Peete sends Stone to the negotiation, since he knows more about Michaels than she does. To us, Sanders voices doubts about Michaels being able to get what he wants.
Michaels opens the negotiation by telling Stone all of his ideas - first and second choices, and all of the combinations he's considering. (What is he thinking?) Needless to say, he doesn't get any passion fruit. Not wanting to waste a lot of time on the negotiation when there's so much else to do, he quickly caves. Fortunately, Stone doesn't cripple his backup plans too, so Michaels ends up with a lot of alternates that he's happy with. Meanwhile, Peete has exactly what she wants.
Michaels comes up with two flavor combos - Pear-Plum-Nutty (nutmeg - winter flavors!), and Trop-A-Rocka which turns out to be pear-mango-peach-vanilla-cinnamon.
They take their teas to the mall for taste testing. Apparently, Peete's team has something with basil in it that seems to test well, but I don't think basil made it into the final product. Kanellis gripes, saying they should have more flavors, but it seems Compassion Berry is a hit.
Junior is skeptical of Pear-Plum-Nutty, and it doesn't test well. One tester says it "tastes like Grandpa." Kanellis sneaks a taste and tells us it "tastes like Christmas." She then goes off on a bizarre tangent about Michaels' taste in women. Classy. (Heh, this sounds like sour grapes. Did he turn her down?)
When Strawberry comes back from the mall with the results, Michaels and Sanders are both surprised that Trop-A-Rocka did better than the Pear-Plum-Nutty. (I'm not.) Michaels had already begun his advertising based on Pear-Plum-Nutty, so this is inconvenient. He's also torn between doing a funny ad, which he thinks will be important, and a sincere ad, because he takes his charity seriously - so he decides to do both! Sanders frets.
After auditioning some actors for the ad, Peete can't bear to be the bad guy, so she has Stone fire the ones she doesn't want. (Aw, Peete! Just pretend they're all Cyndi Lauper.) He also dresses the set gorgeously. Dude knows how to decorate with food! Peete designs the label for the tea, incorporating puzzle piece shapes that symbolize the fight against autism. Her plan is to do a funny ad for TV, and a more serious one for print.
Meanwhile, Michaels gets distracted by the pretty actresses who show up to work on his ad. While Peete is almost finished with her shooting, Michaels has barely started, because he's hung up on getting a dolly track. He feels that a dolly zoom is the only possible way to make his ad work.
This week:
Michaels gets really frustrated when he can't get a dolly track on short notice, but after getting all wound up about that, he ends up rigging a perfectly good substitute with a cart. Ivanka questions whether it's a good idea for him to do two ads. (I think we only ever see one ad, so I'm not sure how or if that worked out. Maybe I missed something.) Then he goes to the studio to edit the ads and realizes he left his voiceover script behind, so he wings it.
Sanders doesn't really get the humor in the "funny" ad, and assuming that that's the ad we end up seeing, I'm not sure I get it either. I think it's funny only in that it's sort of weird.
Meanwhile, Peete works on tomorrow's presentation, while Stone does the print ad and Kanellis edits the TV ad. Ivanka thinks Peete's ad plays it too safe. Peete is miffed when Stone has to leave for a while to attend a friend's wedding.
Michaels' whole team wears hats like his to the Snapple presentation. Michaels is nervous and awkward. He emphasizes the tropical ingredients. (I'm still trying to figure out what's tropical about vanilla, cinnamon, peaches, and pears. Mangoes, yes. And maybe cinnamon? But not the rest!)
Peete's presentation goes more smoothly, and I think the ad is cute. Not any more "safe" than any other Snapple ad, I don't think.
But Trump asks the crowd which ad they liked better, and the applause in favor of Michaels' is much louder. (But Michaels is also more popular, so what does the applause really prove?)
Judgment: The Snapple execs think Michaels is "Snapply" and say that a diet tea has greater potential than regular as a growth market. They like his TV ad better than Peete's, and they prefer his personality too, though Trump says he likes Peete's personality better. They think Peete's label is better than Michaels', though. As for the print ad, it's a tossup. One of them has a better cover, while the other has better inside copy. So... it's a draw, according to Snapple. Fortunately, they offer a matching donation, so that the non-winner can end up with equal winnings!
In the boardroom, Trump, Junior, and Ivanka all say that a diet drink puts Michaels at a disadvantage in terms of sales potential. They find it odd that Peete didn't use Kanellis in their ads. (I don't, but I'll refrain from making more catty remarks.) Having a chef on Peete's side was an advantage. But her materials included less personal and charity branding than Michaels'.
Trump agrees that Darryl Strawberry redeemed himself in this task, and makes a $25,000 personal donation to the Darryl Strawberry Foundation, which promotes global awareness for autism and other developmental disorders.
Trump asks Sanders if she wants Peete to win. Sanders has a hard time answering the question honestly. They discuss this much longer than necessary, since the conflict is obvious and irrelevant.
At the live show, Joan Rivers says that Michaels should win because he cheated death. Bill Rancic says Peete should win because of her incredible fund-raising skills. Rob Blagojevich agrees with Rancic. Peete says even her own kid likes Michaels, and she and Michaels have bonded since the taping. Michaels says he'll accept the sympathy vote since he's competing against Peete's hotness. (It is a nice dress!)
They talk about their charities. Peete says she should win because autism is such a big cause. She claims that she's not as mean as she seemed. Also, her mother had breast cancer during the taping, but Peete still showed up for every task.
Michaels says he won every task on which he was Project Manager, and stepped up for the very first task even though he was sleep-deprived. He never slit any throats. The only reason he was late for that first task was because he puts his all into everything he does (i.e. the show he did the night before the first task).
After giving kudos to both players and offering no further explanation or elaboration, Trump declares Michaels the winner.
Misc. live stuff:
- All the celebrities are there except Sharon Osbourne and Bill Goldberg.
- Trump asks what people think of Rod Blagojevich; Michael Johnson says he's guilty.
- Cyndi Lauper sings a song and dances on the boardroom table.
- Kanellis's Make-A-Wish kid meets Trump.
- Strawberry says this experience inspired him to open a restaurant.
- Lauper says her charity - Stonewall Community Foundation for True Colors, which promotes equality for the lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender community - got an additional $25,000 donation from the CD sales after her task.
- Sanders says her charity - Right to Play, which uses sport and play to improve the lives of disadvantaged children in developing and war-torn countries - got an additional $25,000 donation from Norton/Lifelock sales after her task.
- Kanellis regrets telling her poop story at her last boardroom.
Donation: $250,000 to Bret Michaels, the winner, for his charity,
American Diabetes Association camps for kids with diabetes. He already has $140,000 from two previous tasks, both of which he won.
Snapple makes a matching donation for the non-winner, Holly Robinson Peete's charity, the HollyRod Foundation helping families of children with autism get affordable treatment. She already has $347,893 from one previous task and a free-throw by Kanellis.
Remarks:
- I kept thinking, instead of calling it Trop-A-Rocka, why not call it Poison Tea? But that's probably too edgy for the broader consumer market and wouldn't be a good match with Snapple's focus on wholesome ingredients. (Then again, can you picture the ad? It would be too hilarious! People would be limp with laughter!) But Perhaps he can't use his band's name when doing non-band projects.
- There's a pointless but hilarious scene where Stone calls the same prop shop he'd used in an earlier task, and it's clear that the lady there is totally in love with him!
- Trump says there will be a regular Apprentice in the fall, and a Celebrity Apprentice in the spring. I would love to recap these as long as they don't devolve into the kind of bitchery we saw last year, but it's clear that I can't keep up the recapping any more - even doing just the quotes from The Office seems to be more than I can handle these days.
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