Steve and Tomisue Hilbert struck gold tonight as Donald Trump's The Celebrity Apprentice cast members were tasked with putting together a public marketing event for Australian Gold's sun tanning lotion products. The Hilberts, who Trump describes as close friends, both appeared on the show tonight to tell the competing celebrity teams about the Austrailian Gold brand that is manufactured and marketed by their Indianapolis-based company. "Live the Gold Life" and their trademark Sydney the koala bear were emphasized by the Hilberts as critical to their marketing strategy.
The men's team led by Mark McGrath let the Hilberts down by failing to include Sydney or their "Live the Gold Life" motto in their pirate-themed event, although they thought they generated better buzz for their event. They didn't see the pirate theme as consistent with their marketing efforts. They were also turned off at Gary Busey's in-your-face effort to sell himself as a spokesman for their product. The women's team was led by LaToya Jackson, who complained her fellow team members were ostracizing her. The Hilberts were disappointed the women failed to utilize Playmate of the Year Hope Dworaczyk in a visible way, but they liked that they utilized the company's motto and mascot prominently with their event. In short, they thought the women were better at messaging their product.
Trump sided with the Hilberts and chose the women's presentation as this week's winner. The men agreed Busey was a problem every week that had to be worked around and needed to go, but McGrath backed himself into a corner by saying ahead of time that he should take the fall as the team's leader if his team lost this week. I got a big kick out of Meatloaf and the other men thinking Tomisue was offended when Busey said during the men's team's meeting with the Hilberts that the product made him feel sexual. Busey denied he made the comment but the camera doesn't lie. Apparently they didn't know she met Steve while jumping out of a cake at his step-son's birthday party many years ago. In the end, Trump decided to fire McGrath, but he warned Busey he had better shape up. The Hilberts aren't saying how much they had to pay Trump to get their product showcased on this week's show. The show has about 8.5 million weekly viewers.
6 comments:
I didn't see the episode, but I did see Anne Marie Tiernon's disgusting, peppy story about the Hilberts on WTHR at 11. She went to New York and interviewed Trump and the Hilberts. If I didn't know better beforehand, I would have guessed the Hilberts were a struggling couple of up-and-coming entrepeneurs the way Tiernon was gushing over them.
Are they a success story with the tax incentives they've been given by the city and state? After all, Hilbert's Haverstick Consulting was lured to move from Carmel a whole 5 miles to the northwest side of Indy and next to Tomisue's New Sunshine LLC -- and now they're getting pub on national television!
Of course, not long after Haverstick was given the tax breaks to move in 2007, it was sold to a California defense company -- Kratos. At the time, Haverstick's most publicized contract was with the Department of Workforce Development to complete their unemployment insurance modernization (UIM) project (they were chosen in 2005 because they were an "Indiana company" who unfortunately were bought by a California company two years later.
(Perhaps a bigger irony -- the original UIM contract in 2003 [for $15.8 million] with Tata of India was cancelled by Governor Kernan [for $1 million] because they were foreign. Governor Daniels' administration hired Haverstick, but now the primary sub-contractor doing most of the work is a company from...INDIA).
Haverstick was hired for $23.9 million to be done by April 2008, but now due to Haverstick's (during the 1st two years of the contract) and Haverstick/Kratos' incompetence, they are over 3 years overdue and the project costs over $35.8 million (over $21 million more than the first contract with Tata cost, and a process that's now going-on 8 years).
So excuse me if I'm not overly impressed with Stephen Hilbert because his Haverstick company botched DWD's UIM from nearly day one.
Actually,Tomisue emerged from a cake at Steve's stepson's bachelor party....
Thanks for the correction, Ellen. It spices up the story even more.
Dr. Mr. Advance Indiana,
Just as the Men's team on Celebrity Apprentice did, you also let the Hilbert's down. Their company's slogan is "Live the Gold Life"...you got it wrong in your blog post.
Never fear, with someone as sharp as TomiSue and as trustworthy as Steve on the board of directors, I'm sure their little tanning products company will do just fine.
Looks like TomiSue may be getting a little too old to pop out of birthday cakes but she's very.....tan. Or fake tan.
Thanks for the correction, W. Donald should talk to Steve's doctor about hair plugs. Steve's hair seems to get fuller as he gets older.
Steve does have some killer hair plugs. He also appears to be about as orange as one of Willy Wonka's Oompa Loompas. Amazing what that fake tan lotion will do for your complexion...
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