I was astounded that this idea was not used it was by far the best idea- it would have definitely won the task in my opinion, Spagetti Bolognese to signify Italy, Irish stew to signify Ireland etc.

A map of the world in the side of the packaging with the specific country highlighted and three facts about the country or something, I think it's a winner. How Alex let Myles talk him out of it is a mystery, I was a little confused as to why Myles said it doesn't tie in as I thought it flowed perfectly.

Completely agree. But then I am/was very much Team Alex!

Myles's very forceful defence boiled down to 'I have kids so my idea must be right', so he was on shaky ground there. The cleverest thing he did was to use those sly little buzz phrases to undermine Alex: 'I don't see how this works... you haven't thought this through... mate we haven't got time, make a decision...' It was quite shameless.

Proof that there are no brains behind Myles's front is that, when it came to pitching, it was the little one (Justin?) who thought up a rescue strategy: have two campaigns running concurrently, one for kids, one for parents. Did he share that with the rest of the team? Of course not. If he had, they might even have won. No skin off the little one's nose if they lost, because after his 'blistering' pitch he knew he wouldn't be in the boardroom.

So I think Jordan (just checked) is actually the real villain here. Myles isn't that clever or nice, but his urbane manner fools enough of the people enough of the time to get by.

Alex's was an excellent idea. I am choosing not to believe there was an element of game-playing in opting for Deadly Dinners. If Alex did calculate that Myles would be fired if his idea flopped, then clearly he was wrong.

It is not clear why Myles pushed Deadly Dinners so strongly. Was he following Kurt's example and showcasing his own business plan?

People have always done that though. Like with the cookbook task on the most recent series of Young Apprentice. Maria wanted to do The Professional Woman, and her argument was essentially that she was the only female on the team so she was right.

If Miles comes up with a idea and Alex as PM goes with it, it is Alex's fault for choosing the wrong idea.

If Alex as PM comes up with an idea and Miles implements it badly then it is Miles' fault for screwing up.

If you aren't PM then pushing your own idea forward is the best strategy.

I think that's a bit unfair on Jordan. Remember that he was the last of the three to pitch, so he would have picked up on the fact that the "doesn't appeal to parents" issue was raised in the first two presentations. A big part of the reason his pitch went so well was because he was able to learn from the mistakes of the previous two. That's not devious, that's just keeping your ears open.

Also, if he had spotted that flaw beforehand, why would he want to keep that idea from his teammates? The best way to survive in the process is to win the task, so why withhold information which might help you win?

Fair point. I didn't notice Jordan was the last to pitch, though it's possible he had it up his sleeve all along. They all knew what the fatal flaw was, but nobody except Jordan had a strategy for dealing with it when the retailers pointed it out.

My point was that Jordan could withhold his idea from the others, make them lose the task (while being safe himself because he gave the best pitch) and knock out some rivals. But I agree, I'm probably assuming too much deviousness. Hope so

The case against Jordan is that he was at the focus group (with Alex) where these objections were raised by the parents. Myles and Leah, who did the first two presentations, were back at the house. Were they ever told?

Myles really wound me up in this task and should have been fired over Alex who he stitched up.
I didn't like the way that Myles treated Leah either, he kept interrupting her during her presentation and came across as an arrogant male chauvinist. Had they gone with Alex's original idea they would have won easily.

Alex was a creative person and has a lot of potential. My guess is that the idea on his business plan is the wrong option to appeal to Sugar and that's the real reason he was fired.

Yes, that's a fair point. You would have to hope so. It all comes back to whether Jordan would want to deliberately withhold info to make his teammates look bad, but at the risk of losing the task. I just can't see why anyone would want to do that when the alternative could have made all the difference, as the (blatantly obvious) insight about not enough taste helped Evolve.

I think the idea itself was good , it was alex's idea of using the character named after the welsh word for a microwave as the focal point of the branding that put myles off and made the idea sound really corny

how they could not see that so many words and images with very negative connotations that they ended up using in their choice of product was never going to sell I really don't know however

Maybe he didn't want Luisa to get fired...

We could both be right. Perhaps Jordan did not realise the significance of the parents' doubts -- carried away by the children's enthusiasm -- until the buyers echoed these concerns.

It explains Leah and Myles not being prepared, but absolves Jordan of Machiavellian intent. It is still his fault but cock-up rather than conspiracy.

The supermarkets already have a dozen versions of spag bol in their chilled/frozen cabinets.

The campaign would need to be for a range of meals aimed at children, with as you say some educational angle.

The problem is they only had one meal to offer and no time or knowledge to put anything educational on the packaging.

They would have ended up going in and saying and there will be lots of other things that will taste really good. They could have gone in with one hamburger , or a German sausage, or a curry and said the same thing. At that point, the task becomes silly as anyone could go in and offer anything as part of the range - Afghan date soup, barbecued Rhino, or Bolivian Lama burger, - and claim that it would be delicious. Neil could have countered with an infinite range of equally fictional tasty fusions.

If they just turn up with spag bol, or a token Chinese meal, the supermarkets will already have better.

Still would have missed the basic point that a skull and the word deadly ruled out the product for any supermarket. You can't have young children being confused to think that anything with that on it is , in fact, something to eat. It would be crucified in the press and, every time some child who had seen thecarton poisoned himself, there would be the possibility of legal action, and the issue would be raised again by the press. Myles just didn't see that. The let out was to say that the campaign would be reshaped to avoid their concerns, but thats more fundamental than adding some spice to the food. And a task where you won by saying we will change it to whatever you want would be silly.

I actually thought that was a great idea as it the same sounded like the noise a microwave would make (he ping).

Myles has little room to turn his nose up at that idea and then come up with ''Healthy, horrible food" How in under god did no one say do not but the world horrible on food packaging.

To be fair you could say that about anything and range of food could be infinite, however if they were to pick perhaps six different countries and promote an occasional 'limited edition range' it would open up the opportunity to see if the meal is popular and could perhaps add it to the range.

It of course doesn't have to be spag bol that was just of the top of my head, it could be anything. It also wouldn't have been difficult to have put something knowledgeable on the package, all they had to do was ring a library and ask them for three facts on France or Germany or which ever country they choose.


I'm not quite sure what you mean by the bit in bold.

I seem to remember the Vesta box meals from years ago had little maps on of where the food (supposedly) came from and a story about it on the back.

Alex's idea of teaching people about geography was flogging Spaghetti Bolognese with a picture of a stickman in Venice on it. Even then when Myles asked him about how it was supposed to be teaching anybody about geography, Alex said he didn't know.

I think it would have won, because there was no angle for people to get ludicrously hufty about like they did with Deadly Dinners, but Myles was right to identify that as a brand it had the strength of a piece of tissue paper. It's just a stickman in funny costumes.

Is it? They'd have kept the theme and the general look, just avoided the skull image. Where-as the other team made such a mess of the food they needed it to be redone from scratch by someone who can cook. If the food wasn't important, why was it part of the task?

I think Alex's idea was very good and a character called Popty Ping was appealing to my ear. I'm rather sorry he's out as I think he has a good brain but lacks experience and assertiveness. Hopefully his time in TA will serve him well.

As an idea it was decent, under Alex's guidance though it appeared to be going absolutely no where of relevance.

He went "educational" "Geographical" "Popty Ping" "Man on Gondola" it was a total mess and he had barely even started, god knows where he would have taken it if Myles hadn't stopped him.

I thought Myles idea was a good one, the skull was a bad choice for definite, had they gone with dracula or a monster I think the supermarkets would have taken them. After all you get sweets called Toxic Waste, rubbish cans etc, I don't think the name or even the description was the issue. Once explained it was a good idea, it was the stupidity (of which Alex was also a part of) of putting a skull as the logo, which was the issue.

Not least because spaghetti bolognese does not in fact come from Venice. The clue is in the name.


The vital difference that escaped Myles is that children buy sweets but parents buy meals.