| Home > Podcasts > The Apprentice pitches to Microsoft - but let's use Apple to do the project, shall we? |
| The Apprentice pitches to Microsoft - but let's use Apple to do the project, shall we? | | Date Created: 22 Dec, 2005, 10:12 PM |
 The other week I noticed a mention of The Apprentice TV show featuring Donald Trump which used Microsoft's Office Live Meeting as its feature product.
A cursory check of Scoble's blog showed no entry for it which I thought was odd, so I had to guess which episode to download via BitTorrent (it's episode 12).
This fourth series is drawing to a close and four candidates are left, three women and one man. (See picture, below. Actually, it finished December 15 - we're behind in Oz and reliant on Bit Torrent to see it. Yahoo's site won't play Apprentice movie files on Macs.
UPDATE - December 29: We're not so far behind. The concluding episode of Season 4 broadcast here late at night on December 27).
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They are now in two syndicates, titled Excel Corporation (the two on the right) and Capital Edge.
The task this episode was to make a 60 second promotional video for the Live Meeting product and show it to two Microsoft executives. Now I wonder... If you had to sell a Microsoft product, which of the two syndicate names would you rather have? Hmm... let's see what happened.
By the way, when Trump meets the MS crew he declares, "I use a lot of Microsoft, and it works!" The surprised MS execs nod excitedly. I would hope so if I was paying to have my product featured.
Excel consisted of the very tall African-American fellow, who seemed a very pleasant well-rounded candidate to me. His partner was an attractive Sandra Bullock-like brunette on crutches.
Their opponents in this episode were two blondes, one a real tyrant and the other a sweetie. Not an attractive combo to me, and bound for trouble.
Each syndicate was assigned a professional videomaking and editing crew, as well as actors, but it was up to each to develop the concept, script and final approval for what was seen by the MS execs and the Donald and his support staff.
Excel decided to tell the story of a harried executive trying to organise a face to face meeting but he seemed conspired against by all kind of factors, and so Live Meeting was presented as a Virtual Conference solution.
We got to see how they put the video together, including its professional editor using... let me see.. what Pro software did they use? |
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Now I don't know about you, but that software looks awfully like Final Cut Pro to me.
Further along in the program, we get some cutaway shots of the professional editor zapping his fingers across a special editing keyboard. |
Am I right in thinking I see an Apple logo here somewhere? Is it possible a G5 Powermac is hidden under the table?
(Look at the key farthest to the left, under the blue and yellow keys. Some people have struggled to see it, judging by the Comments)
And it seems others have also picked up on the irony of using Apple products to develop materials to sell MS products back to MS itself.
Go here (and look for the comments of Worthington and Sisk) as well as the tv.com website coverage, where it's mentioned under "episode trivia":
"Ironically, in this episode the contestants use Apple computers to edit the Microsoft commercial." |
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 In the Excel editing suite, Trump associate Carolyn watches the just-completed video, and asks,
"How long did that take you?"
She's impressed with how quickly it all came together, and it really could be an old "Power to be your best!" advertisement for Apple, couldn't it? |
Ok, so what we have is a Microsoft promotional video being sold to Microsoft executives but produced using Apple equipment. That sounds pretty normal, doesn't it?
As the show draws to its conclusion, we get to see the two promotional videos.
We also get to see Excel's competition struggling to meet their deadline, until the harridan gets an "inspiration" and despite not being Project Manager begins to call the shots. Somehow she decides to vacate the story they wanted to tell, and go the Powerpoint route.
No people featured, no talking heads, no narrative, but a fast moving animated Powerpoint-type video that's... a disaster.
Take a look at this image from it, below. The four panels each come in from the sides in that typically awful Powerpoint movement. And who can read the text, since the image stays on the screen for only a second or two? 60 seconds of this, and I'm suffering nausea from the visual perception overload.
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These women have seen one too many Powerpoint shows... but then again, haven't we all?
Ultimately, the Microsoft executives get to see the videos, and report back to the Donald. Excel is the winner, clearly. The more Microsoft-like product, the one resembling Powerpoint presentations seen 30 millions times a day, yucks out.
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The look on Microsoft marketing director, Janice Kapner, says it all!
This Sucks! (Did we just blow our product placement budget?)
(For more of Kapner's post-show thoughts, go here for her positive spin. A more contrary view can be found here - and, yes, it also compares the losing video to bad PowerPoint!)
And so it's off to the Trump Boardroom for the losers, to be confronted by he, and his male and female associates. Who is going to be booted into the Yellow Cab? |
 Blonde blames Blonde, until the Donald decides to view the video himself, declaring "I'm not a big computer person... I know buildings", before adding he can't make sense of the video's message.
"What the hell were you trying to do?" seems to be his non-verbal message, right. |
The male associate (Season 1's winner) hits the nail on the head, declaring "you put all these words popping up on the screen... that was a catastrophic mistake!'
Great advice fella! Now go consult with Microsoft and tell them how to do presentations properly. (Yes, I am declaring 2006 the year I crusade against Powerpoint in industry. I'm doing it under the guise of workshops offering "Cutting Edge practices in Stress Management". |
 The blonde associate, Carolyn, seems to be enjoying hearing Trump tear strips from the women of Capital Edge, and after viewing their video, throws them a withering glance as if to say,
"You think I don't get to see enough pitches by Powerpoint every bloody day? I'm dying here from Powerpoint! And you dare try selling it back to Microsoft?" |
 At the end of it all, Trump is so unimpressed with the women's project management skills, and their unpleasant boardroom display of temper and unsisterly disloyalty that he fires them both, much to the delighted surprise of the Excel syndicate.
Now did you really think that a team called Excel pitching to Microsoft ever stood a chance of losing?
Oh, by the way, I sent Scoble an email about the episode at the beginning of the week, and he responded he'd forgotten about but would blog it shortly. He still hasn't mentioned it.
Frankly, I don't blame him. |
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