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"I think our Project Manager sucks - flat out." |
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"I felt like the kid who never gets picked in dodge ball. I mean, they drove a bus over me." |
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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.
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