I can usually take reality TV or leave it. I have long since tired of the parade of egotistical idiots emprisioned in the Big Brother House, or the Z list celebrities camping out in the jungle and subsisting on live insects and foul smelling vegetables.

But The Apprentice is in a different league. True the candidates are taken from further down the food chain with each successive series, but there is something totally addictive about watching them screw up in the most maginificent ways with tasks which in reality should be a push over for anyone with even an ounce of business acumen.

The problem is most of them do not have even an ounce of business acumen, and even those that do are so busy trying to shout over each other that they always miss the bleeding obvious, lose the task, or win by making less of a loss than the others. Then they face the wrath of Sirallan and that is when the fun really starts.

The episode where they had to create a marketing campaign for a breakfast cereal was perfect for me and my marketing back ground. The team that created the Treasure Flakes campaign did a very good job considering the time they had to produce a TV add, packaging and strapline. The Pirate Parrot was funny and on the cereal box the idea of making the fruit into pieces of treasure really appealed to the kids.

The other team did Pantsman!

What were they thinking? How could they let Phillip talk them into it? Was it not obvious that they were handing Sir Alan a put down beyond the dream of most script writers?

Still it took Phillip two more weeks to fall on his sword when he proved that his selling skills were just about up to the same standard as his marketing skills.

Complete PANTS!