Task: Design packaging and display for an ID theft service
KOTU: Joan, Clint, and Herschel, led by Natalie
Athena: Jesse, Brande, Melissa, Annie, led by Brian
Eyes and Ears: Ivanka and George Ross
Outcome: KOTU wins for having a more creative design.
Boardroom: Brian chooses Melissa and Brande for the boardroom.
Fired: Brian, for losing his drive.
Donation: $20,000 to Boys & Girls Clubs of America.
When Clint and Natalie return to the suite, Joan is disgusted that Clint wasn't fired. Clint and Melissa commiserate as project managers seeing teammates fired unfairly.
When they meet with Trump about the next task, some bad feelings are expressed, but he defends his decisions. For some reason, the words "grandstanding" and "ratings" aren't used.
The task is to design packaging and an in-store display for an ID theft service.
Even though neither Annie nor Jesse has been PM yet, Annie pushes Brian to be PM a second time and admits to us that she doesn't want to be PM on an advertising/marketing project because she'll be at the mercy of someone else's judgment, which she can't control. (She mentions later that money is also part of the reason; she wants a chance to raise more money for her charity.)
I don't know why Brian, who tells us he's still tired from his last gig, doesn't just say no and turn it back on Annie, but he accepts.
By contrast, Herschel pushes Natalie to lead KOTU because she's the only one who hasn't been PM yet. Nat tells us she's nervous about managing Joan and Clint.
KOTU prepares
The team meets with the executives. Joan asks questions about the use of humor. Clint's main question is whether or not he gets a free membership. Joan bristles at his self-centeredness.
At the brainstorming session, Clint wants them to use a picture of a safe, with the slogan, "Are you safe?" Joan doesn't think that's funny and has an idea about a bodyguard. However, for the sake of keeping the peace, she doesn't want to make a big deal of it. Natalie wisely puts them on different portions of the task.
Herschel and Clint go to Brooklyn to meet with the designer. At the office, Joan shares her concerns with Natalie that Clint's packaging ideas won't appeal to women. Natalie agrees. Joan tells us that Natalie is naive, but at least she listens to people's ideas. Instead of just having the safe, they'll also have their celebrity faces peeping around the display.
They call Clint at the designers' workshop about the change in plans. Clint objects, but then stops talking when he sees Brande from the other team drifting around. Herschel misunderstands and gets upset that Clint hogs the phone and "runs off like a little girl" every time he disagrees. Joan assures him that the change will not affect the size of the existing design in any way. After he gets off the phone, Clint insists that Joan's wrong and has the designers change the dimensions accordingly.
Natalie is the exact opposite kind of leader that Clint was; she can't even decide which way the brochure should open and fold. Clint makes up some joke quotes to go with their faces for the display.
Now they're pretty much done except to go to Brooklyn and see the designers.
Athena prepares
The team meets with the executives. Annie seems to ask most of the questions. Melissa has some too. Who says very little? Brian, the project manager.
At the brainstorming session, they decide to build their idea around the image of the company's CEO, who is already the star of the company's existing ads. Jesse's already working on the design and takes Brande out with him to get a picture of a lock. Brande tells us that her strategy is to stay out of the way.
Back at the office, Melissa's working on the text and talks about her passion for punctuation. Annie's working on it too and is happy about the time management so far... and with that, she has apparently jinxed the team, not that it's her fault that Brian can't tell time.
It's 3:30. Annie asks Brian if "anyone" has called the designers yet. She points out that this wasn't her job and gives them a call. Indeed, the designers are twiddling their thumbs and say they need to have something by 4:00 if they want it done right. (Melissa is disgusted that Annie is "positioning herself" to not get fired. I think she should be kissing Annie's feet for finding out that they're almost out of time, since no one else seemed interested.)
Annie calls Jesse and Brande, who are still scoping out locks, and tells them to get to the designer in Brooklyn. In the van, Brande tells Jesse that the others rely on him a lot. He says it makes the day go by.
However, he then gets violently ill, and is sick for the rest of the task. He does his best to explain things to the designers in between bathroom visits. Brande, for her part, wanders around the workshop, poking at things, and making random comments to the designers while they work, such as "I'm really good at screwing nails in." I'm not sure the guys appreciate her inane chatter while they're trying to work.
At the office, the disk that's supposed to have some crucial graphics (pictures of the CEO) on it is blank. Jesse says he'll email them some artwork. Annie worries that time is running short. Brian does not. George Ross comes by to check things out and doesn't find their plan interesting or creative. Regarding Annie's worry about deadlines, Brian says that if they all panicked, nothing would get done.
Jesse's emails aren't getting through, perhaps because the attachments are too large. The printer closes at 8 whether they have their artwork or not. They all go to the designer in Brooklyn. Annie and Melissa are disgusted to see Brande (the one who observed that everyone leans on Jesse) loafing around and not doing anything while Jesse is so sick. Meanwhile, Jesse is still coming up with ideas to salvage the situation - they can take their artwork to a quick-print shop tomorrow, etc.
The presentations
The "vault" display comes out great, except that the graphic decals are too small (because Clint had insisted on changing the size of the display). Natalie calls the print shop and asks for a bigger one. They rush it out, and it's perfect. They have clever packaging, brochures, info, etc. Joan gives a polished but somewhat dry presentation with no jokes.
Athena's display is disappointing and cheesy-looking, but they don't have any ideas to fix it. It looks a little better when they add the packages, which hang directly on the display. Brian tries to nail the presentation with his charisma. Unlike Joan, he focuses on selling the display itself, rather than the product, to the executives.
The postmortem
Natalie says her team was great, and Joan and Clint got along just fine. Joan grudgingly admits she'd go to one of Clint's concerts, but only if he gave her the tickets. Clint says Nat was a good PM. Joan rates her as a 7 or 8 on a scale of 1 to 10; Trump wonders if Nat should be offended by that, but Nat thinks an 8 is pretty good coming from Joan.
Brian also says he had a good team. Melissa says Jesse was sick.
The client thought KOTU's display was great and original, making good use of the celebrities. Unfortunately, the packaging was too small to fit the product.
They liked Athena's presentation and display, but it wasn't much different from what the company had already done. It wasn't creative, but they liked that that the actual product could be placed directly on the display.
They liked KOTU's better overall, so Natalie's charity, Boys & Girls Clubs of America, gets $20,000.
Up in the suite, Joan tells her teammates that Brande will probably get fired, because Melissa and Annie don't think she's very good.
In the boardroom
Brian didn't think the company would want to do something different. George mentions the time problem. Annie says yes, she was worried about time, but Brian wasn't. Otherwise, Brian was an okay leader; however, when pressed, Annie says Brian was the weak link. (In the suite, Joan is furious that Annie didn't blame Brande instead.)
George inexplicably picks on Melissa for not focusing on messaging and originality, even though that wasn't her job. He gives her a hard time for doing some research during downtime while waiting for Annie to finish writing.
Brande and Jesse also blame Brian; obviously, they're protecting Brande in hopes that she'll be easier to beat later. Melissa is the only person who blames Brande. Brande replies, "I give 190%" and says she worked on the display case that the client liked. (Though obviously didn't like it enough. And "being in the same room" is not the same thing as "working.")
Annie says that Brande works hard, but doesn't stick her neck out, and that she plays to last rather than to win. Ivanka points out that Annie has also been playing to last rather than to win so far. Annie agrees that it's time for her to step up.
Brian says they lost because they didn't have a good idea. He picks Brande and Melissa for the boardroom.
In the suite, Joan has a fit, curses Annie, and throws a glass. She packs her bags and waits in the hallway so that she can be ready to leave with Melissa.
Meanwhile, Annie whispers to Brande not to worry; she doesn't think they'll fire her. Annie goes to the suite, where Joan confronts her. Annie says Melissa is totally safe, but Joan thinks Trump loves Brande. (It seems she's forgotten that there's a third person in that boardroom.)
Melissa blames Annie for the loss now, and is surprised Brian kept her in the boardroom. Brian says he had to bring "someone." Brande says that Brian doesn't want to be here. He admits that he's tired. Trump agrees, and fires him.
"I told you, Joan," Annie says smugly.
But wait, there's more - Trump calls them all back to the boardroom for another task! Alas, the new task isn't completed in this episode, so it'll have to wait until the next recap.
My MVP
My MVP pick for this episode, not that it matters, :-) is NOBODY. Annie and Jesse worked hard, but they didn't get good results. KOTU worked hard, but I didn't see that anyone in particular stood out. They all had both good and bad moments.
Brande was definitely the weakest link, and it's too bad she wasn't fired. She didn't do anything while Jesse was throwing up and being asked to re-send emails. But why fire her now when Brian's head is already on the block? It'll be easier to take Brande out later... or will it? And can either team afford to keep a dud around at this point in the game?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment