The Apprentice 2018: Fired David Alden stands by his controversial pitch

The tax advisor was slammed by Lord Sugar for lacking business acumen
Disaster: David Alden pointed out the negative points of his own product during a pitch
BBC
Natasha Sporn11 October 2018

Fired Apprentice candidate David Alden insists that he stands by the decision to read out negative points about his own product during a vital pitch.

The tax inspector, who was ousted by Lord Sugar during the second episode, pretty much sealed his fate when he rattled off a list of negative market research points about their comic book, including a lack of gender and disability diversity.

However Alden maintains that he knew exactly what he was doing in the meeting but “his mouth just started talking rubbish”.

Speaking to Standard Online about his exit: “This might be a bit controversial but I stand by it. My brain was thinking one thing and my mouth blurted out something rubbish.

Gone: David Alden was fired by Lord Sugar after the second task
BBC

“The point I was trying to make was we’ve got this consumer research and actually they love it which was a surprise to me – because I didn’t.

“The point I wanted to make was ‘Look, they really like this and the negatives are so small that we’ve already got a plan in place, we can bring a female character in the next episode, it’s so easy to fix and then, what we’ve got, is exactly what they want’.”

Alden, who also works as a DJ, slated project manager Frank and the “dreadful” character of superhero Benji given to them to work with.

The 32-year-old said: “I feel we were shoehorned into this dreadful idea of doing it in space, this dreadful idea of having a superhero. It’s been done a million times.

Comics: The second task involved creating a story
BBC

“I don’t think it was fair [I went] because we were shoehorned into this idea, pushed into this theme. We were told we had to have a superhero and if you have a superhero then you have to have a bad guy and then you have to beat the bad guy.

“So, for me, the ultimate decision at the very top dictated to us…that’s why we lost.”

Next week will see the remaining 14 candidates create, manufacture and sell their own range of doughnuts.

The Apprentice continues Wednesday October 17 at 9pm on BBC One.

The Apprentice 2018

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