Mark suggested that his team dress as pirates and went against other members’ idea of simply having lots of “babes” sell the product. The women threw a lot of ideas at La Toya, but quickly became frustrated with their team leader when she could not make fast decisions.
Both teams met with the Australian Gold executives and the execs stressed to both to concentrate on the company’s koala mascot, Surfing Sydney. But all the men heard was the execs say, “Life is short, you have treasured moments,” concentrating on the word “treasures.” And everyone knows treasures mean pirates! LOL.
La Toya asked her team to look up old Australian Gold commercials and to see what they’ve done in the past. When ads showed men and women on the beach, La Toya suggested they mimic the same. NeNe Leakes kept pushing for a new idea by saying, “They’ve done that already.” She also bad-mouthed La Toya every chance she got to the camera, “La Toya is confusing because she is all over the place. She had no idea on where to go, at all.”
When Playmate of the year Hope Dworaczyk volunteered to be one of the swim-suited models at the display, Jackson instead tasked Hope with keeping the budget and doing the shopping. Now, I like Ms. Jackson, but I could not understand why she would not use her team’s best physical assets on this particular job and hire models instead.
As for the design of the box, Mark told the set designers to make the glass box look like a shipwreck salvation center, with the center being the treasure chest full of suntan lotion. “We’re pirates,” Meat Loaf emphasized to the designers.
The women who went shopping for props, Hope, Marlee Matlin and NeNe, meanwhile felt confused and were not sure what the whole concept was. La Toya and Star Jone met with the set designers, and Star expressed to the camera that she had no idea what La Toya’s vision was. La Toya told the designers, we want palm trees and koalas and added, “Just bear with me right now cause I am winging it!”
Lil Jon and Gary Busey were in charge of props for the men’s team and decided against renting a koala costume the store they shopped at had because it was a different color that the Australian Gold mascot and did not wear shades. Lil Jon explained that companies are “sensitive” about their mascots and did not want to use a costume not matching the mascot exactly. Meanwhile, Marlee reserved the same costume the men rejected to use as part of their display.
Ivanka Trump visited both camps and seemed to really like the men’s pirate idea and the jingle chant they wrote. She told the women their idea was not distinguished enough which sent La Toya questioning their idea. So, the morning of the presentation, La Toya decided to add a winter element in addition to her summer theme to show that sunscreen can and should be used all year round. Instead of being happy for the new creative idea, the women were worried that they had more work to do last minute.
Donald Trump, Jr. visited the women’s display as it was almost set up – he thought they had done a great job of brand integration even though there was too much going on. NeNe hopped over to Donald Jr. in her koala costume just so she could trash talk La Toya all over again. “La Toya was not organized and she was not a good project manager….I’d be surprised if we won.” Now, Ms. Leakes, how you gonna back stab your team like that? Oh no, she did not stop there. “If we win, it means the guys sucked!” she told the camera.
Trump Jr. also paid a visit to the men’s display and said the men came up with something original, had integrated the celebs into the display, and integrated the product. He believed they had made an energetic scene which conveyed a defined theme versus the nebulous idea of a beach like the women had. But he did say he was not sure if the display conveyed the message the Australian Gold executives wanted.
When the Australian Gold execs visited the men’s display, Gary grabbed one of the executives by the arm and dragged them all away from Meat Loaf. Gary also cornered the execs and physically pushed Mark away when he tried to break up Gary’s monopoly hold on them. Finally, the men started singing their jingle chant and distracted the execs away from Gary.
Donald Trump, Sr. met with the Australian Gold execs after they had a chance to visit each display. The execs liked the men’s jingle and said they created greater buzz around the box than the women, interacted well with the crowd and educated them better. They did not, however, like the fact that Gary had presented himself as the representative of the team. They also did not like the men’s specific non-use of “Live the gold life” slogan or the koala bear mascot. They also disliked the pirate theme. They said that the women had hit the slogan and messaging well, but they did not interact as well with the crowd or use their theme as well as they could have, specifically pointing out that Hope should have been in a bikini showing off her Playmate bod….At the end of the day, the execs picked Team A.S.A.P. as the winners.
In the boardroom, Mark made the lethal mistake of saying if his team loses, he would take the sole blame. At that moment, I wanted to scream, “NO MARK, NO! Don’t you watch The Apprentice? The Donald does not keep people around who ask to be fired!” Mark did try to backpedal and took Gary as the sole other person on the chopping block back to the boardroom. And even though Gary lied and said he had not made sexual comments to the execs, it was too late for Mark and it was Mark who walked the plank and dove deep into the murky waters of the “You’re fired!” hell.
Did the win quiet down the hater
NeNe? Of course not. Even though Trump specifically told
NeNe to go back to the hotel room and “apologize to La Toya,”
NeNe said, “No” to Trump and went full throttle against
La Toya back in the hotel.
It all started with NeNe, the constant nagger and tattletale herself, saying, “La Toya, I don’t appreciate you using my name in a negative way. You tried to act as if I said I don’t like you. And I have never said that. This has nothing to do with personal, this is strictly business.”
Then she started raising her voice, claiming she is real and if La Toya did not like what she heard, she could “go in the bathroom and hide.” La Toya kept her cool. NeNe went on, “Don’t you try and act you’re the reason we won. I worked my ass off while you sat there and looked like Casper the Ghost! Let’s be clear Casper, let’s be clear! Disappear ghost….the only reason you’ve gotten this far is because of your last name and you faked it for fifty years. You are very old and you need to play your age and not 12. You are a (sic) old lady.”
Thank God Star interrupted the rant and said, “Let’s watch the men self-destruct, we are owed that for god sake, please.” La Toya acted like a class act, did not say anything except tell the camera that she and NeNe were from different cloths.
