The Liverpool kid was hopelessly out of his depth pitching and the more stressed he became the more his accent became Scouse. Then nice posh Harry took over and the attitude of the retailers changed.

Similarly with the girls, the black girl from Peckham was again out of her depth and it was a preaching style of pitch then the nice home counties accent girl took over and again everything changed

I suspect it was because Harry was clear in what he was saying (and I'm not referring to his accent), The Liverpool chap was just blurting things out randomly at the buyers!

Ditto with the girls.

Gbemi failed to explain what the product was. Even after the retailer had to ask this after the first pitch, she failed to adjust her second pitch to make this clear.

Oh gosh, racism? Realy?

Did it ever cross your mind that wasshisface and Gbemi were just rubbish at pitchs?

I don't think it was the accents.

It wasn't the accents it was what they were saying.

Lewis is clearly bright and intelligent - but he's very inarticulate, and didn't think about what he was saying and how he was saying it. He was doing exactly the same thing in the boardroom as well, so its something he needs to work on.

That "estuary" accent of Gbemi's might have something to do with her problem as well as her downright awful pitching, but I am erring on the side of the fact that she didn't explain what their product did during - or even after - for the failure of her pitches!

Restricted language codes make life difficult as they do not have the same capital as the middle classes.

Lewis panicked and this was reflected in his pitch, it contained more "um's" than the entire collection of Little Plum cartoons and Gbemi failed to get across what the girls product actually did. Twice.

Accents didn't come into it.

It's probably because the northern sounding ones are more likely to shoplift in their stores.

It was absolutely nothing to do with their accents. It was purely because Lewis and Gbemi were utterly ill prepared - Lewis was reading his from a book! - both mumbled and neither gave any clear or pertinent information about their product.

gbemi doesnt have a great vocabulary imo, her pitch was terrible,i dont think that she was ill prepared,just that shes not very smart

She wouldnt be on the apprentice if she wasnt very smart now would she? They interviewed lots of candidates and came up with the best. Because she cannot pitch does not make her less smart.

Both Gbemi and Lewis were terrible, they knew it and passed on........good tv though

Its not that she couldnt pitch, its that she didnt recognize she couldnt pitch.

Although that may have as much to do with arrogance as it does stupidity.

Gbemi and Lewis were awful and came across as stuttering and bewildered.
I do think Lewis' accent will go against him as they usual cliched , dull ideas about scousers prevail , I even saw a comment on here about how Lewis will rob people , but hopefully he will judged on performance. Gbemi was out of her depth but she she runs her own clothing business in real life so maybe she was guilty of ignoring her weak points.

Is that how it works?

Though they should both really have realised this after the first pitch at least and let someone else do the second.

I loved it when Gbemi said: I'm glad I've made the decision to let you do the pitch - and all the others ignored her.
What an insecure thing to say (yes, showing her age). Also her face when the (no) orders where announced. Classic teenage strop! I really like this show.

Agree with the majority in this thread; it was the accent, it was the pitches.

That kind of social prejudice is as harmful as racism/sexism.

That poster seams to have forgetton the London riots.

Yes they spread up North eventually, but the origional theft and damage was in soutern england.

*impartial* *impartial*

They advertise for applications, interview and select. So I dont think they would recruit anyone who wasnt "the best?" Or, would they. Is there something I have missed?

They'll recruit people who make good telly, not necessarily the best.

Accent has nothing to do with it, it's about confidence.

The latter guys spoke more clearly and were well presented. The former guys were in neck deep, they were stalling really bad in the presentation and even freezing and losing track of what they were saying.

Part of being good in business is to delegate or outsource tasks who can do it better than you. The pms failed to realise that and they tried to go in gun ho and do everything for themselves.

But this is something you learn after a few years in your career, they're yound and they don't understand that so it's not sleight on them.