Ok, so I just finished watching this week’s episode and I haven’t felt the need to write anything up to this point, but after watching that mockery of a show, I’ve just got to vent a couple of things…
First and foremost, let me say clearly enough – most marketing people bug me.
Granted, there are many who do their job just fine and dandy, but one thing that I don’t like about this show is the glamour it lends to young, “successful” marketing executives. Now I know that this is really who the show is set to showcase and maybe I’m just spoiled by last season because it’s hard to go from watching two noble and honorable contestants to watching a handful of spoiled, well-to-do brats scramble over the cookie jar. I see this a lot in society today, and I saw the best of the best tonight…and not in a good way – take a few preppy college graduates, give them a little success, some flashy clothes, and a fairly simple job to do, and watch them just trample all over anyone who doesn’t fit into their clic. High-fiving each other, “We’ve got a really great idea, girls!”, snubbing their noses at anyone who disagreed with their plan – I was waiting for them to whip out a deck of cards and just make Brent in charge of all future creative solitaire development or something…
I certainly wasn’t Brent’s biggest fan, but they treated him like crap and didn’t give him any opportunity to show his worth to the team – plain and simple. Yeah, he had a harsh mouth and didn’t always say the right things, but you’ve got someone on a team, so use them however you can – how is giving up on them and hoping that they’ll eventually get fired an option? I’ve worked on various projects with a lot of people who’ve had some really stupid ideas – hell, I’ve had my own share of them, too – but pass judgement on somebody too quickly and you’ll never get a chance to see if they might actually have some good ideas in them, too. As far as I’m concerned, the team might’ve said that they were “embarassed” of him, but from my angle, it just stank of, “He’s not as cool as we are, so he needs to just disappear.”
I hated that perspective in high school and thankfully managed to outrun it (I think…), but sadly from frats and sororities in college to marketing and consultant groups in the working world, there’s no boundary that makes people like this outgrow a persona like that anymore and at least in my opinion, it’s very unattractive.
And for the record, now at the top of the list of things that a woman can say to instantly turn me off – “…and that’s why I’m a multi-millionaire, and you make $50,000 a year? Right…”
*sigh* I sooo wanted to like Andrea on this season because she’s the most attractive to me and, hey, sometimes guys just think like that, but I’m also the type of guy who actually cares what she sounds like when a woman opens her mouth and Andrea quite perfectly personafies the valley girl from high school who thinks that she’s better than everybody else. She was probably head cheerleader, dated the captain of the football team, and got straight A’s, too, and that would’ve been pretty impressive if she didn’t actually hold it over everybody’s head like she was such hot shit. There’s nothing wrong with having a little self confidence, but I can’t recall any of the greats in my opinion – Michael Jordan, Steven Spielberg, Walt Disney, etc… – ever being quoted as saying, “I’ve won more NBA championships than anybody else / directed America’s favorite movies of all-time / created Mickey-fucking-Mouse … what have you ever done?!”
So that’s how Donald Trump disappointed me this evening because here we had a team filled with spoiled, uncreative brats ganging up on the odd man out and instead of pointing out that everyone got selected because of their talents, he joins right in with them and says, “Well, Brent – Andrea’s worth millions of dollars and makes a whole lot more than you do … doesn’t that count for something?” The ground could’ve just split right across the board room table at that point to show the divide between those who deserve their money and those who are spoiled by it, and I’d rather sit down and share a meal with someone who’s earned his keep like Brent than a spoiled executive that expects me to be impressed any day. Success isn’t only measured by finances, but they sure did a lousy job of showing it this week.
Then again, maybe that world’s just not for me – I can be happy for those who are more fortunate when it comes to wealth than myself, but don’t expect me to think any better of you just because you live in a nicer house than everyone else on your block. All the money in the world isn’t going to impress me when it turns out that you’re really just a bitch. It’s time to get over yourself because frankly, aside from all of your other “wealthy” friends, the rest of us already have…
Final judgement – it was a creative task and whoever was responsible for the layout of the banner should’ve been fired, and that was primarily Andrea because she and Tammy are clearly in love. Sean didn’t do so swell with the presentation, which is too bad because British people sound really cool with the accent and all, but ultimately I wouldn’t have fired him because the banner would’ve sold their idea by itself if it hadn’t been so cluttered. I don’t think it was fair to fire Brent “because no one got along with him” due to the fact that everyone looked down on him and never really gave him a chance. They pre-judged him from the start and I think it’s going to come back to bite them because as much as I don’t like the other team, I really don’t see anyone on Synergy as standing out from the crowd anymore. They may all be beautiful now, but we’ve seen it in previous years that eventually the need for skill and talent is going to trump just looking pretty, and I predict that the winner will be someone from Gold Rush.
And it might even be Lenny! I’d love to see him square up against Andrea right about now… 😛