Score – Women 2 Men 0

I was very wrong in my first review of Apprentice. I said it was more than “sex” that was selling the lemonade. It was the experience. As they reviewed the first episode, Trump was talking about the lemonade contest and said, “The women found out that sex sells.” as they showed clip of one lady kissing a customer on the cheek. I stand corrected.

This week the teams were given the task of developing an ad campaign for Marquis Jet, a service of NetJets. They were given 48 hours to create print and video media for the campaign. The agency and judge that they worked with Donnie Deutsch of Deutsch Inc. [Over New Year’s, I saw a pilot for a new show on CNBC called The Big Idea with Donnie Deutsch. Hmm, interesting].

This week’s lessons:

• Sex Sells! – I give up. I was wrong. The women’s approach to the campaign was edgy to say the least. Take a look at the print ads they developed. While not completely convinced of the idea, Deutsch choose their campaign as the winner. He told Trump, “When you choose an agency, you choose the people.”
• Talk to your customers – The men made a fatal error and consciously chose to not visit the management of NetJets. With so little time to develop a pitch, how can you pass up that opportunity? The women didn’t make that mistake. That move cost team leader Jason his spot on the show.

We could talk about how Sam survived another visit to the courtroom and how Omarosa and Ereka are going to slug it out. But, that isn’t why I watch. I am interested in the solutions the teams create to solve the challenges.

NBC has hooked me for another week. If you want to get in on it, The Apprentice is moving to Wednesdays at 8/7C starting next week.