Team leaders flexed their recruitment muscles as they chose between old ‘fired’ faces. In a scene reminiscent of the playground (no doubt Stuart was at home, albeit yo-yo less) poor Paloma held her head high as the last to be picked.
With an almost traditional girl/boy split, Liz may have felt like a ‘gooseberry’ in Chris’ team — although we question it as a flavour for a drink. Deploring tact, Chris reigned in the more inappropriate naming conventions, including the ‘crown jewels’, which seemingly people don’t want to get their lips around. The supervision of Joanna and Shibby was questionable with their behaviour ringing sexual orientation alarm bells. Joanna labelled blue as gay, while Shibby decreed pink the new ‘blue’.
Chris could benefit from heeding working time principles given he was burning the midnight liquor writing his pitch for the next day. Cubes gave way to Prisms as Chris invented his sharp looking rum and pomegranate mixture. Liz faced disciplinary action for exceeding her authority by ignoring crystal clear instructions and returning from the lab with a distinctly colourful pinky/red (girly?) drink. Despite more pitching punch than usual (thanks to anti-monotone mentoring from Jamie) Chris failed to persuade industry experts of Prism’s cross gender appeal.
Stella also (mistakenly) delegated the taste task. Even with all Sugar’s technology, apparently tasting is not a process that can be undertaken over the phone; cue Sugar’s criticism of the pungent bourbon drink. However, a sober Stella shone with her team management skills, winning praise from Nick for good natured and effective management of her vocal Urbonites.
Chris’ movie making skills showed slight improvement, though his persistence to use sex to sell risked contravening advertising standards, as did his disregard for the smoking ban. Has it really been that long since you’ve been out Chris? Meanwhile Stella hit the fizz with the brand name ‘Urbon’ for her bourbon with a twist but we weren’t convinced by her pitch to her prospective neighbours in the countryside.
Sugar’s ultimate quandary — self-taught or formally educated - Urbon sleek Stella’s ten years’ experience versus pink Prism Chris’ ten months. It was a close call. Chris’ lucid entrepreneurial skills were undermined by poor advertising and a female orientated product. Despite Urbon’s condiment like appearance, Stella’s proven track record and passionate self-appraisal made her an obvious choice. As Sugar called time on the process, the long awaited phrase ‘you’re hired’ was directed at a delighted Stella.
Whilst sipping celebratory cocktails and congratulating himself (oh and his sidekicks), undoubtedly Sugar is eyeing up an in-tray of CVs, in readiness for the next batch of candidates eager to sweeten him up, for a place in the 2011 process.
Neisha Glynternick works for media lawyers Sheridans
