The Apprentice 2, Episode 11: Blue Jean Blues

As usual, the candidates are milling around the suite, wondering who will be the next to go. Jennifer, the only member of her team sent back to the suite, is pretty sure Chris will be the one sent home. Ivana and Kevin return, confirming that she’s right. Ivana hugs Sandy and immediately gets a glass of wine. In an interview, Ivana says she’s mad that Chris brought her and Kevin to the boardroom instead of Jen. She has no idea why he would have done that and says, “I think he’s probably fallen prey to her hypnotic fembot spell.” Err, right. It has nothing to do with the fact that she did really well working with the vendors, and everything to do with her pretty blonde hair. Nice try, Ivana. Wes tells Jennifer that her biggest talent is being able to “dog someone out nicely.”

The next morning, Wes answers the Trump Phone, and for those of you keeping score, he’s wearing a shirt. Oh, well. The candidates are to meet at the Levi’s showroom. They gather there, and are quickly joined by Trump, Carolyn, and, filling in for George, season 1 winner Bill. Trump learns that Kevin is project manager of Apex, and that Wes is leading Mosaic. Because Apex is down in numbers, Trump asks Wes to choose one person to join the other team. Wes huddles up with the rest of his team, and they spend longer making a decision than Trump would like. Finally, Wes sends Kelly to Apex. Is he nuts? Apex is glad to have Kelly on board.

Trump fills the candidates in on the task. Levi’s is the original maker of jeans and is still a major denim vendor. Levi’s wants to position themselves as more than just your classic 501’s, so the teams are to get that message across with an in-store promotional catalog. They’ll have access to photographers and to designers at Yellowfin Graphics. When they’re done, Robert Hanson, the president of Levi’s, will decide which team’s catalog was the most innovative and exciting. With that, the teams are ready to go.

In an interview, Kelly says that he thinks Wes was afraid to go against him in the boardroom, so he sent him to the other team. Apex welcomes him to their team, and Kevin says in an interview that he’s confident they’ll win. Kevin volunteered to lead the task and says that Jennifer and Ivana supported him.

Apex starts brainstorming. Ivana says that the most important thing for them to stress is the fit of the jeans. Kevin says that Levi’s has a fit for everyone, which gives Ivana an idea. Why not make a fit wheel, something you can spin to find the perfect style of jeans for you? She’s excited about the idea and makes a quick sketch of what she’s thinking. Kevin and Kelly love the idea and are all for it. Jennifer, though, doesn’t get it. Really? Because it’s not that difficult of a concept, and Ivana did a good job of explaining it. Jennifer asks Ivana to draw it for her, and Ivana can’t figure out another way to show it. Ivana says in an interview that Jennifer is “slow to understand,” and isn’t used to thinking creatively. Kelly tries to explain the concept to Jennifer, who still doesn’t seem to be getting it.

Over at Mosaic, Wes assures his team that they can still win without Kelly. He says that in a fashion and creativity related task, he’s glad to have Maria and Sandy on board. Andy, marginalized again, starts to leave the room to work on something else as Maria starts talking about her ideas. Wes says they need to stick together for a minute before anyone gets off track. Maria immediately protests that she wasn’t getting off track. I can tell already that things are not going to go smoothly for this team.

Maria is excited about the photo shoot and working on the catalog layout because she has a lot of experience in the field and has “the best expertise.” She tells the team that she wants to push them outside of their comfort zone. So far, what I remember of Maria’s expertise in marketing is that she failed to get a written estimate from a print vendor in the Crest task, tried to add sex to a recruiting campaign for the police department, and neglected to put a phone number on the ad for the bridal salon. I’m not exactly impressed. Sandy says that Maria is taking over the task, but that all of the team members have something to offer. She thinks it would be “an awful, stupid, ridiculous idea just to leave Maria in charge.” Amen, Sandy. And that sentiment is especially strong considering that she was reluctant to do all of the work in last week’s bridal salon task even though it was her own field of expertise.

It’s time for the Trump Lesson of the Week: “Don’t Lose Your Cool.” Trump tells us that you always need to maintain your composure… unless it’s an act to scare your employees. Wow, if he’d freak out just to scare me, I would not want to work for that man.

Kevin says that he wants the consumers to feel good about Levi’s, so the team decided to use real people in the ads instead of models – specifically themselves. After all, they’re a diverse group of people, with different body types and attitudes. Right, except that all of them are really good looking. But no matter, I’ll just enjoy watching Kevin try on shirts. Ivana says that whenever you try on a pair of jeans, the first thing you check is how your butt looks in them, so they focus their photography on the butts. Jennifer gets her hair and makeup done, and I must say, she looks incredible. Kelly says that as a model, she’s a natural. Ivana gives her a more backhanded compliment – she thinks Jen could be a model because she is able to easily manipulate her persona.

Wes admits that he doesn’t have much experience working with models (I would guess not, since he works in finance). He tries to art direct the models, but he doesn’t seem to know quite what to tell them. Maria blinks furiously, and sends Sandy to tuck a model’s bra into her shirt. Then, she declares that she is taking over and will art direct the shoot. She marches over to a model and snaps some directions at her. The model looks a bit taken aback, but does what Maria tells her to do. Wes says in an interview, “When Maria flew into the studio on her broomstick, the whole attitude in the room changed.”

I’ve never art directed a photo shoot, but I’ve watched other people do it, and the one common thing I’ve seen is that the art director is always nice to the models and does what he or she can to keep them happy. I guess Maria skipped that lesson. She tells the models to be bitchy, and to “show butt attitude.” Oh, maybe she’s leading by example, because she’s being bitchy, and her attitude is that of an ass. Meanwhile, Andy and Sandy are concerned about running out of time. There are still several styles of jeans that they need to shoot. Andy tries to talk to Maria about it, but she ignores him. Andy tells Wes to talk to her – they’re spending too much time on each outfit. He says that Wes needs to take a stand.