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For
the second time in as many weeks, Andy had been brought into the boardroom
by a Project Manager to face the firing. Like the previous week, the
candidates in the suite were sure that Andy would be gone - and just like
the previous week, they were wrong. When Andy walked in, the other
candidates reacted with groans of surprise (and a word you can't say on TV).
No one got up to shake Andy's hand or congratulate him. Andy walked out and
spent some time alone on the balcony. In an interview, he said, "I felt like
the kid in dodge ball who never gets picked. I mean, they drove a bus over
me." But Andy said that he came to win and promised that everyone would see
another side of him -- one that they'd never seen before.
Via live video
conferencing, Trump called the candidates from his private jet. The teams
learned that they would be working at Deutsch Advertising, where they would
create an ad campaign. George and Carolyn would observe. As always, the
losing team would meet Donald in the boardroom where someone would be fired.
The teams headed over to the agency and met with Donny Deutsch, the owner of
the company. He told them that their task would be to develop a recruitment
campaign for the New York City Police Department. Donny emphasized that he
wanted the teams to focus on the emotional element of serving your city as a
police officer. Donny left them with a few final words of encouragement:
"Don't screw up."
Andy, who said he'd
been wanting to lead, got his chance when he was randomly selected to be
Mosaic's Project Manager. Andy told his team that he envisioned an ad
campaign that asked bigger questions. He pitched an example: "When was the
last time you saved a life?" But Maria, who said she had the necessary
experience to lead the team on this task, felt that the campaign needed to
have sex appeal. She suggested a picture of a Hummer vehicle on the ads.
Andy disagreed and steered the team toward his vision.
Apex headed down to
the NYPD training facility where both teams would shoot the video and still
images for their campaigns. Raj was impressed with the array of assets that
they had at their disposal: helicopters, armored personnel carriers, boats,
a SWAT team and more. Elizabeth, who was also chosen at random to be Project
Manager, admitted that her first outing as Project Manager was a failure.
Now, she said, this task was do or die for her. In a brainstorming session,
Chris pitched the idea that after 9/11, working for the NYPD is like working
on the front lines. Elizabeth was worried that the concept focused too much
on terrorism. But Raj said that the fear was unfounded. And Chris chimed in
that police work was serious stuff. Elizabeth said she didn't think the idea
was the right one, but since the rest of the team wanted to go that
direction, she would too. Then Elizabeth sent Kevin and Ivana to start
shooting images of officers in action. But Elizabeth said that,
unfortunately, they'd have to start before they knew all the shots they
needed. Kevin disagreed with that strategy, but did as he was asked. Apex
got a lot of action shots, including a helicopter in flight and a SWAT team
sprinting into action. Mosaic showed up at the training facility to find
Apex already filming. Wes worried that Apex was way ahead of them. To make
matters worse, it threatened to rain. Andy said that he had a list of shots
that he wanted to film, but wasn't sure he could get them all. However, Andy
said it was important that he keep his composure and just keep shooting.
After a long day of
filming, Elizabeth was still not happy with the concept that she had agreed
to at the beginning of the day. Kevin offered to help come up with a new
concept that could be used with all of the footage they had. The two worked
into the night and came up with a new idea. Kevin said that over the
action-packed visuals they had, a voice over could say, "I'm just not
excited going to work and doing the same old thing." Elizabeth liked the
idea because it de-emphasized the military aspects of joining the force and
emphasized the idea of getting a great job. Looking relieved, Elizabeth said
she "loved" the new direction. At the end of the night, Elizabeth said she
wouldn't change her mind again, even though she knew that the others on the
team might not be happy with the change. Kevin said they had "turned a
corner" and that he felt more positive about the project. But the next
morning, when Elizabeth pitched the new campaign to Raj, Chris and Ivana,
they didn't seem receptive. Raj felt that the ads didn't have enough
strength. And Elizabeth backed off the idea.
Andy was happy with
how Mosaic's campaign was shaping up, but Maria wasn't. She was concerned
about attracting their young, target audience. She told Andy that they
needed to infuse more sex appeal into the campaign. But Andy stood his
ground and stayed true to his initial vision. Kelly promised that if the
team lost, and the lack of sex appeal was a factor, the issue would come up
in the boardroom.
All of Apex
gathered again and with Kevin present, Elizabeth announced that they were
going back to their original, more militaristic idea from the day before.
Kevin was not thrilled that he had spent the previous night coming up with a
new campaign, only to have Elizabeth throw it out and change her mind again.
Then, when Elizabeth tried to articulate the new version of the ad campaign,
the rest of the team said they were confused and didn't get it. Kevin said
he didn't know what Elizabeth wanted. Kevin thought that Apex had no chance
to win. In an interview, he said, "I think our Project Manager sucks - flat
out." Jennifer M. went so far as to suggest a coup. She said that the team
should fire Elizabeth as Project Manager. However, the group didn't follow
through on the threat.
Later, Elizabeth
asked Kevin to work with the print advertising people, but Kevin wasn't
clear about what Elizabeth wanted. After going back and forth, he finally
told Elizabeth to shut up. He told her that she needed to explain all of her
ideas, clearly and completely, to the print people and he would manage the
process. He told Elizabeth that she would get no more input from him - and
he walked off.
Although Mosaic had
finished their campaign, there were still issues to argue about. Kelly felt
that, given all of his experience, he should be the one to present the
team's ad campaign. Andy disagreed and the two clashed. Kelly felt that he
could speak personally to the idea of joining a police force because he had
joined the military. Andy didn't see the consistency, but he finally agreed
to a compromise: he would do a short introduction and Kelly would present
the ad campaign. In an interview, Andy said that if he had to placate Kelly
by giving him a part in the presentation in order to win the task, he would.
As Apex finished up
their campaign, conflict ran high. Kevin said that Elizabeth was trying to
put band aids on the military campaign. Kevin said that if you're going to
do the military campaign then you should just do the best one you can. Raj
completely disagreed with what Elizabeth was doing with the text she was
adding to the still images for their posters. He felt it had nothing to do
with the themes they were trying to get across.
Finally, it was
time for the presentations. First, Apex showed off their ad campaign to
Donny and two of his managing partners. Both the print and TV ads showed
action and portrayed the police like an extension of the military, asking
the viewers to join them on the front lines. Apex left and Mosaic entered.
In contrast to the first presentation, Mosaic's print and TV ads asked the
viewers personal questions like: "When was the last time you saved a life?",
"When was the last time you were fearless?", and "When was the last time you
made your family proud?" The ads also used some action shots, but portrayed
a more human side of service. After conferring with his partners, Donny
brought both teams back into the conference room, where he called Trump.
Donny drew a stark contrast between the two campaigns. He said that Apex
turned New York into a police state and implied that their ads had the
potential to freak out 12 million New Yorkers. On the other hand, he said
that Mosaic followed the direction about going for emotion and went for the
heart. Donny told Trump that it wasn't even close - Mosaic won by a
landslide. Trump congratulated Mosaic and told them that since they had done
something for the City of New York, the city would return the favor. Then
Trump told Mosaic that he would see them in the boardroom, where someone
would be fired.
As their reward,
Mosaic was driven to Times Square where they got to see their ad played in
public on the jumbo screen. Maria called the experience "incredibly
rewarding." At the suite, Wes gave Elizabeth advice on how to act in the
boardroom - something which Jennifer M. did not appreciate. And Raj told
Elizabeth that he knew she would try to pin the whole military theme of
their ads on him.
After Apex entered
the boardroom, Trump asked Elizabeth what went wrong. Elizabeth said that it
was simple, her team didn't have a good idea. Trump said he wanted to see
Apex's ad and so everyone sat through it again. At the conclusion, Carolyn
declared it as pretty bad. And Trump thought it was too militaristic. Raj
stood up for pushing for the military theme. He said that there were no
other ideas on the table. Jennifer M., Chris and Ivana backed Raj up. Then,
Raj, Ivana and Jennifer M. all agreed that Elizabeth was a poor leader and
used words like "weak," "indecisive," and "paralyzed." Kevin brought up a
specific example. He said that the night before the presentation, he and
Elizabeth stayed up late and thought up a new direction for their ad
campaign. Kevin said he really liked the new approach and that Elizabeth did
too. But when Elizabeth pitched the new idea to the rest of the team, they
didn't like it and so, Elizabeth dropped it. Trump jumped in and said that
as a leader, you have to stand by your decisions, no matter what. Trump felt
something was missing from Elizabeth, but he couldn't quite pinpoint it.
Donald asked Elizabeth whom she would bring back into the boardroom to face
the firing, and Elizabeth said she'd bring Raj and Chris. But Trump thought
for a moment and then stunned everyone by saying, "Honestly Elizabeth, I
don't think it's necessary. You're fired."
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