Love is in the air on The Apprentice this week as the contestants are tasked with creating a new online dating website and advertising campaign. They are called by The Old Marylebone Town Hall — one of London's busiest registry offices — where Lord Sugar sets out the challenge, before the teams head off to brainstorm.
Their first job is to decide who will be project manager; Jordan Poulton and Alex Mills both put themselves forward to head up Evolve, but once again Alex fails to secure the top job.
Despite Alex's experience in web design and the fact that he has used online dating sites before, both Leah Totton and Myles Mordaunt opt for Jordan to lead the team. Jason Leech is chosen to project manage Team Evolve after revealing he was known as 'Cupid' during his university days because he ran an online dating site during his time there.
That momentary disagreement serves as a pre-cursor to an Apprentice first — an abdication. Tasked with creating a website for Friendship and Flowers, Luisa is frustrated by Jason's indecision when a 45-minute delay debating what colour the logo should be means the pair don't have enough time to build the site itself.
That evening, the team agree that Jason should step down as PM and pass the mantle on to Luisa.
Meanwhile, Endeavour choose to name their site for young professionals Cufflinks, but aide Karren Brady isn't convinced there is enough spice to their concept. "They picked young professionals as their target market, specifically aged between 20 and 30. This is young people who want dating to be fun, yet their webiste is incredibly corporate, very sterile. (It) doesn't say, 'Come here, you're going to have a load of fun' to me. "The team do decide they need to add excitement, as Alex is tasked with playing the comic role of Herbert — the personification of a bad date — in their TV campaign.
After pitching to a group of experts, the teams return to the boardroom — and the honeymoon is over for one contestant.
While team Endeavour agree on targeting young professionals for their site, Jason and Neil Clough champion the idea of targeting the over 50s for Evolve's concept — but Luisa Zissman is unsure. Convinced they should also stick to young professionals, she argues, "None of us sitting around this table here can relate to mature, over 50's. "But Jason holds firm, saying, "It's something new, its something where we could actually differentiate ourselves.
