| The Apprentice episode | |
 Raef is fired. | |
| Week Nine | |
|---|---|
| Version: | UK Series |
| Series: | Series 4 |
| Task: | Create an advert for a new brand of tissues |
| Project Managers: | Alex (Alpha) Raef (Rennaisance) |
| Team Changes: | Raef and Claire move to Rennaisance, Alex moves to Alpha |
| Fired: | Raef |
| Airdate: | May 21st 2008 |
| Series Four Tasks: | |
| |
Week Nine featured the teams having to create a new brand of tissues as well as an advert for it which they would then use at a pitch for their brand. It originally aired on May 21st 2008.
The Task[]
Alpha[]
To begin with, Raef Bjayou and Claire Young were moved from Alpha to Rennaisance, and Alex Wotherspoon was moved the other way. Alex was then made project manager by Lord Alan Sugar. Alpha consisted of Alex, Lee McQueen and Lucinda Ledgerwood for this task.
The brand name chosen was "Atishu!" and was meant to refer to the sound made when a person sneezes. Alex and Lee designed the box giving it a bright yellow background with the name displayed clearly over it in a large black font. Around it were images of a person blowing their nose and a kitten under a blanket amongst others. Lucinda heavily criticized this deeming it a nasty design and disgusting that someone would want to look at a person blowing their nose.
For their advert, Lucinda was making a number of decisions whereas Alex was not. Both he and Lee felt Lucinda was overpowering and needed to let Alex take charge. Their advert consisted of a regular family (which they had had to cast, something which they found difficult) made up of a mother, father and young daughter. The plot was that the daughter wanted to go to school but the mother did not want her to as she had a cold. The father then presents the daughter with the "Atishu!" brand box and claims they're anti-bacterial, and their daughter will be fine. The single You Are the Sunshine of My Life plays as the family car is driven away with the daughter going to school with the tissues visible in the back of the car. It then cuts to a close up of the box lying in a flower patch of pink flowers.
For the pitch, Lee was not prepared and delivered his speech poorly. This had not been helped by bickering between Alex and Lucinda, meaning Lee had not had a speech prepared properly.
Rennaisance[]
Prior to the team changes, Rennaisance was one member shorter due to Sara Dhada's firing the previous week. However, with Raef and Claire being swapped to Renaissance while Alex went the other way, Rennaisance had one more member than Alpha. Renaissance therefore consisted of Raef, Claire, Michael Sophocles and Helene Speight. Raef was made project manager, despite Michael requesting this role the week before so that he could prove himself to Sir Alan after two consecutive weeks in the boardroom and having come extremely close to being fired the previous week.
Claire Young came up with the name "i ♥ my tissues", something which Raef agreed with and took on board. He then asked Claire and Helene to design the box while he and Michael planned out and directed the advert.
Claire and Helene designed a simple teal box and complained amongst themselves about Raef and Michael and how they would need to keep an eye on them.
Raef and Michael tried to make a much more artistic advert. Raef planned it to begin with a mother (who he wanted Sian Lloyd to play) and a child at the school gate. The mother then cleans yogurt off the child's face and tells them to hurry or they'll be late. It was then planned that there would be a scene set at sports day and also a scene with a young girl sat on a park bench crying and the young boy giving her a tissue. In the editing suite they found out that their advert ran nearly twice as long as the set time given. Raef and Michael chose to cut out certain parts, including a close up on the tissue box which they both thought made the advert look bad.
Rennaisance's final advert consisted of Sian Lloyd at the mother cleaning yougurt off the the boy's face and then showing the boy handing the girl a tissue. Michael recorded a voiceover, but Lloyd's face could not be seen and there was no close up of the box. The single When You Say Nothing at All was played over the advert, and their caption was "This is the start of a beautiful relationship. For their speech, both Claire and Helene spoke, and they managed to do theirs quickly and without mistakes.
The Boardroom[]
Despite being much more visually appealing, Rennaisance's advert caused them to lose because the product was not advertised properly with no view of the box or mention of tissues. Sir Alan branded Alpha's advert "horrible" and seemed visibly annoyed at having to declare them the winners, but had to concede that the advertising executives felt theirs would have worked better as a campaign.
Raef brought both Claire and Michael (making this his third time in a row) back into the boardroom, while Alpha got an after-hours shopping spree in Harvey Nichols in London. Sir Alan criticized Lloyd's use in the advert as she was not seen and has nothing to do with tissues and the product name was also criticized, Sir Alan questioning how anyone could love their tissues. Michael claimed in the boardroom that everything good about the advert was down to him, which Raef said was not true. Sir Alan chose to fire Raef claiming he was nothing but "hot air" despite his actions in the previous weeks and absence from the boardroom which Sir Alan put down to luck. Nick Hewer, Margaret Mountford and Sir Alan agreed that behind Raef's charm and personality there is very little.