Amazon UK took orders for both products - Splish Splash and the Eco Composter/Eco Compost Bin. Seeing as the show has just been broadcast, this would mean more consumer interest in the products. Surely the products would sell a few units due to their recent tv coverage on the show?

I searched for Splish Splash. There are various products that use those words but none are a water guard for the bath:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_...splash&x=0&y=0

I also did a searth for the words: Splish Splash Bath:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_...+bath&x=7&y=17

No bath guard in the results.

I did a search for bath water guard:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_...er+guard&ajr=0

No product called: Splish Splash bath guard:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_...guard.&x=0&y=0

I did a search for Eco compost bins. Found this item but it's for garden compost - not a food compost bin:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sankey-4170-...3013949&sr=8-5

I found this food composter bin but it's not the one featured on the show:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kitchen-Craf...3014588&sr=8-1

Based on my searches Amazon do not stock either products. Unless someone can find them - good luck looking! - Amazon do not stock the products which means the orders were fake which means the episode was fake and a contrived result was manufactured to make the boys team win and the girls team lose.

Anyone can search Amazon to look for these items so if the results were fake - and they appear to be - it makes the episode look a bit dishonest.

It's a TV show. It's not 'real'.

Just because Amazon itself has placed orders with the manufacturers doesn't mean they'll be available for retail to the public yet. Chill out.

Sure, but if Alan's advisors, Karren and Nick, reveal the orders then we should assume they are genuine. If they're not, and I couldn't find the products on Amazon, it undermines the results.

Amazon UK Is one of the biggest internet companies in the world so it's so easy to do a search for the items. The producers of The Apprentice made a mistake going with such a famous online store! Unless someone can find these products, I think they've asked for this criticism. I don't believe they've sold out of the items. They would hold on to them and wait until the show was broadcast to use the extra publicity to sell more of them! But I can't find them on their site.

The episode was filmed in the autumn of last year.

has any of the products "invented" on any of the Apprentice shows been made available to buy?

I thought it was understood that it was make believe orders, that no product was ever going to be made and actually sold

One product created by a candidate on The Apprentice has gone to market. The Body Rocka:


http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/s108/...ody-rocka.html

As mentioned, it took Pantsman Phil two years of hard work to get his product to market. It doesn't take two days which was the timescale in last night's episode! Amazon don't buy products within two days of seeing them. Well, I very, very, very much doubt it!

I think it is by most people.

They never say "hypothetical orders." They say "orders." We, the audience, are supposed to assume they're genuine.

Sugar never says to the losing team "well, you lost but the other team didn't really win cos no-one is actually buying their product!"

I couldn't find the boys food compacter/composter on Lakeland either. They may need time to sort out patents, suppliers, QC, proper market research, etc.
As I mentioned in another thread, I thought it was a bit strange that they didn't show the boys discussing pricing and margins unlike the girls.Maybe it wasn't really a viable or profitable product.

Well, as mentioned, frally, the Body Rocka product, featured in 2009's Apprentice, took two years to become a viable commercial product. That puts it all into perspective.

I don't know how many orders The Body Rocka got when it was featured in the episode but no-one on the show said "we love the product but we need to wait until two years to give you an order." The product got instant orders but they were made-up. The real orders took two years to happen.

On shows like Dragons Den the Dragons give the impression products can get orders fairly quickly, certainly within two years, perhaps within six months? But I think it's unrealistic to expect any large store to buy thousands of your product within a week or so of visiting them. And to add to the Apprentice's lack of credibility, would Amazon really want to stock a Splish Splash bath guard when the girls were saying "you can buy a million of them!"

This looked very silly and even Sugar said "no company in the world would want to order a million units straight away." Would Amazon have thought the girls team were credible? Unlikely. It seems doubtful they would have taken them seriously and be bothered to take a 'real' order. Clearly, it wasn't a real order.

Phil's Body Rocka is on sale on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rocka-Stabil...3016408&sr=8-2

Well done, Phillip!

Bit expensive, though. 70 quid!

I don't think anyone but you is surprised by this, to be honest.

"I don't think anyone but you is surprised by this, to be honest."

I guess so. I'm still in shock over the fact Father Christmas isn't real.

More BBC fakery!!!!


Someone call the Daily Mail! This knocks those polar bear cubs and catapillars-in-a-box into a cocked hat!

What? Are you sure? I'm devasted.


Still, there's always the Easter bunny to look forward too.

(V)

Something tells me you've missed the point of the exercise entirely.

I suspect the idea is to portray the pitching and ordering process as it would be if the companies (teams) and products were real.

But...the teams are just that, teams and not companies, and the products are hastily conceived prototypes. Nevertheless the teams pitch and the buyers ask questions and then submit the numbers they would've ordered in a real process.

Is it fake? Yes, in a way, but it's a reasonable way of presenting a process and providing a task for teams to undertake.

Well put.

Similarly, last year, with the Application task, neither were available for download.

I believe that the orders placed by retailers aren't genuine and just how many they would buy if the teams were really pitching them.
However, in the case of the Apps, I don't see why they wouldn't be available for download when the programme aired as it would be a perfect marketing tool.

Well the Apps were just designed to be a one off day thing and not actually for anything other than that. Maybe thats why?

Do you really believe that the contestants design a product in a day then have a prototype made overnight then pitch it to companies the next day and it is real? That process takes months and years for real companies and no retailer is going to buy 10,000 units based on a non-working prototype.

Honestly, is this what we've come to in Britain where people need to be explicitly told every single thing. Most of us just use common sense.

Common sense dictated to me there’s little or no chance of winning if the team you’re in or are leading are given London Zoo. Same with designing a product. It is down to buyers making a theoretical choice and although I wouldn’t go as far as suggesting anyone is advised which product should be given which order number who knows that they aren’t.

Well a few series ago one of the tasks was to develop and market an ice cream......

The company where they did the work actually did (for a short while anyway) sell "The Apprentices' Toffee Apple Ice Cream" in their farm shops afterwards - and delicious it was too!

However - there was a notice over the freezers saying what they had had to do to it to make it commercially saleable, as the apprentices had made some fundamental errors when making theirs.

With the last years Apps there seemed to be a lot of work put in to getting them available to the public in the first place. http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/3997...ple-slangatang . No reason why they shouldn't be available later.

Surely this thread shows exactly why these products aren't available.
If they were, the whole show would just be one big advertising feature!