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Kevin Shaw is the sixth to be fired from The Apprentice |
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Written by Telly Addict
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Thursday, 01 May 2008 |
Kevin Shaw has become the sixth candidate to be fired by Sir Alan Sugar from the current series of The Apprentice
For week 6 of The Apprentice, the contestants face a challenge centred on greetings cards. Sir Alan Sugar tells the teams that he expects each team to invent a special occasion day, then create and design five card ideas to celebrate that day. Each team must then pitch their concept to three market-leading retailers; and as usual, the team which bags the biggest order numbers from the retailers will win, while one person from the losing team will be fired.
Sir Alan appointed Michael Sophocles as team leader of Alpha, with the rest of the team made up of Lee, Jenny M, Helene, Raef, and Lucinda, and Kevin Shaw as team leader of Renaissance, with the rest of the team comprising Claire, Alex, Sara, and Jenny C.
For Kevin and Michael this is their first chance at team leadership in this series.
Michael is keen to use the diverse skills within Alpha, saying, "I'm looking forward to working with new people. I'm expecting open-mindedness because lateral thinking in a creative environment is imperative".
Kevin, meanwhile, wants to show how it's done. Kevin says, "I inspire devotion. People want to work for me because I make their lives inspirational".
The teams get down to the tricky business of innovating ideas. National Joke Day and congratulations on cosmetic surgery are discounted by the Alpha team. For Renaissance, Sara's suggestions of Eid cards, as well as Jenny C's prom day campaigns, go the same way. After some very brief market research, the final decisions on celebration days are made.
For Renaissance, Kevin opts for Jenny Celerier's plan for an environmentally focussed campaign, Save the Planet week. For Alpha, Raef comes up with the concept of National Singles' Day, because "on Valentine's Day people who are single basically feel like shit".
The remainder of day one is spent firming up on card designs and the messages the cards will contain; while Renaissance drip on about bathwater usage, Lee and Alex compose limericks to adorn their light-hearted cards. Then, as Raef carelessly burns the midnight oil to work on his sales script, Kevin chats to Jenny C about swapping his Porsche for a push-bike.
Day two of the task starts early and by 7.30am work has begun. Both teams have hired actors and sourced props for their photo shoots. Jenny C, Claire and Alex get to grips with the models who will help them push their message, including a man with a kilt which billows upward, employed to illustrate a use wind power theme. They do ask the model whether he is happy with no pants or would he like to wear a thong telling him "it is a girl's thong but don't worry as it's a sports thong so you can't really tell the difference between girls and boys."
While Michael leaves the girls, Helene, Lucinda and Jenny C to argue amongst themselves and eventually oversee their photo shoot, the boys concentrate on the design and wording of the cards, although they do get distracted for three hours trying do decide where the apostrophe on National Singles' Day should go.
Kevin is also immersed in the proofing and design process, but his minions grow increasing agitated about his lack of preparation for the forthcoming sales pitch. Now, with just two hours to prepare his pitch, he wants Jen and Claire to take over. After volunteering to take the task on yesterday, they feel time is now surely against them. Both respond with a very firm no.
At 6pm the teams meet the retailers' representatives. Alpha pitch National Singles' Day to Clintons Cards and Tesco, but both retailers feel their shelf space would make more profit if they stayed stocked with traditional Valentine's cards instead. The Celebrations chain seems more positive, but will they buy enough stock to make Michael's team winners?
Kevin's first appointments are with Clintons Cards and Celebrations, which both point out the contradiction, first highlighted to camera by Margaret, in sending unnecessary cards to hammer home a Save the Planet theme. The man from Tescos, too, is unsure - but will he place an order? It's off to the board room to find out, where Nick and Margaret reveal the final figures.
Alpha's National Singles' Day won orders for 22,500 cards in total, while Save the Planet week prompts sales of just 6,000. Michael's team head home triumphant to enjoy Sir Alan's treat, a recital of classical music, featuring soloist Myleene Klass, even if Sir Alan looked a little less than impressed with Michael's over enthusiastic celebratory yell and Margaret did a great impression of a startled rabbit.
Sir Alan Sugar looks unimpressed when the Renaissance team returns to the boardroom. He accuses Kevin of being railroaded by feisty Jenny C, who he says ran the task. But it is Sara and Claire who eventually join Kevin in the final three.
Sir Alan is unimpressed by Claire, who he felt should have done the presentation to help Kevin.
Sir Alan is also unsure of Sara's role in the task, but has seen her endure much criticism for not communicating her ideas. There's a touch of Shazia-style scapegoating here. Sir Alan is not fooled. "I am wise enough to know when people are ganging up on people", he says.
Sir Alan told Kevin, "Kevin, this whole task turned out to be a fiasco. As team leader I hold you completely responsible. Kevin, you're fired".
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Last Updated ( Friday, 09 May 2008 )
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