While it’s known the producers of The Apprentice get sadistic pleasure out of editing contestants into idiots, it was still embarrassing to see a fellow industry professional get chopped up and fed to the nation as another twisted, reality show moron. In last night’s season premier, Boston-based POPstick Chairman and CEO Danny Kastner was the buffoon of the episode, painted into a caricature not unlike a circus clown. Of course Kastner didn’t help matters by dressing in distracting, oh-so-cool ad-wear, leading his team in a feel-good kumbaya campfire-like moral building exercise and, worse, failing miserably at his assigned task.
In the episode, the two teams, college grads versus highschool grads, had to develop a new burger for Burger King and sell as many as they could. The highschool team, with a much better sense of the fast food environment, of course, won. The college grads, Kastner’s team, lost.
Kastner’s job was to put together a marketing program to get people into the restaurant. As part of his plan, he came up with a freak sidewalk show, replete with his horrible guitar playing and some kind of carnival-like ring toss. Oddly, the stunt seemed to get people into the restaurant but the so-called college smarties were clueless behind the cash registers making for a cluster fuck of customer service.
In the boardroom, Kastner was slammed by Caroline who simply couldn’t believe what he had done in the name of promotion. While he wasn’t fired (his team leader was), Kastner degraded the perception of the advertising profession which, today, is already in tough shape. We know we’re sometimes a bunch of weirdos with our own incomprehensible language and odd characteristics but Kaster’s performance on the show exposed our worst side.
We feel for POPstick employees this morning.
