Camping World, an RV retailer and supplier, decided to work with “Celebrity Apprentice” last night. No, NBC did not send the cast into the woods in an RV, but that would have been HILARIOUS! (Latoya arguing about no electricity, Star just… complaining, John Rich doing a campfire sing a long!)
Instead, Camping World camped itself in Manhattan to promote itself for two hours. It brought four RVs into New York City where the teams had to create “experiences” and a “branding presence.” And since it doesn’t have a store anywhere near New York City (and why should it?), it to create a fake retail site so the teams could buy supplies for its experience.
Clearly, none of these actors, athletes, models and singers have ever camped, much less spent time in RVs. “I’m black. I ain’t never even slept outside,” NeNe said.
The men’s team Backbone decided to give the project manager title to Gary Busey because they felt he was unfocused and wanted him to prove himself. The women’s team ASAP opted for supermodel Niki Taylor.
Neither team came up with terribly creative ideas or slam-dunk themes. The producers have fun with Taylor’s “Camping in the 21st Century” concept Taylor kept saying 20th century. In fact, she has fellow model Hope Dworaczyk go to Google to confirm that yes, we are in the 21st century. And the editors catch Taylor still saying 20th century after that. She’s such a model! (get it?)
Both teams seemed a bit frayed and lost at points. While Meat Loaf, Richard Hatch and John Rich worked on branding the other four – Mark McGrath, Lil Jon, Jose Canseco and Busey – did very little. A neurotic McGrath and annoyed Lil Jon fretted a lot about not doing anything while the other two sat on lawn chairs and relaxed. When Ivanka Trump stopped by to check in, Canseco (in his Ed Hardy everything)
McGrath took video of Jose and Gary throwing a baseball. He was so convinced they were going to lose that he figured he could use that in the boardroom later. (He didn’t need to.) Fortunately, when Rich, Meat Loaf and Hatch came back, they make the place look pretty good in the end.
Rich came up with a simple, catchy country theme song for Camping World, which impressed the Camping World CEO Marcus Lemonis.
The women more or less got along, though Star Jones opined about the lack of a vision. In Taylor’s mind, it was a “camping experience.” What more theme did you need?
During the actual challenge, the men’s exterior site looked sharper thanks to the greenery and big “Camping World” banners. Their presentation was also more energetic with Busey coming alive, putting on a frenetic show for curiosity seekers and the CEO. The women’s interiors were much better thanks to their decorating prowess and the low-key but sweet LaToya Jackson surprisingly gave an adept tour of her RV. The Camping World CEO later said she did a better job than some of his own sales staff.
It was back to the women to fight it out again. Except Niki didn’t fight. She grabbed the sword and landed right on it, saying all the women worked out great (despite a silly spat with Dionne Warwick over where Hope was where Hope felt Dionne wasn’t talking to her in a respectful tone.)
So Trump just fired Taylor. But noted that she had integrity, for taking the blame and not being tacky and pointing the finger at her fellow teammates.
Now, for what you all came here for, I give you.
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