Donald Trump: Pushing Right Guard

If you've ever watched NBC's Celebrity Apprentice, you know how it works: Donald Trump gives the two teams a business challenge, and they compete against each other in an effort to avoid getting fired. Last night, Right Guard enlisted the celebrity apprentices to create a four-page print ad campaign for its new deodorant, Fast Break. Instead of being forced to feature themselves in the ads, Right Guard offered up David Lee from the New York Knicks.

As usual, the players' initial instinct was to go for the raciest ad possible, with nudity barely concealed by the deodorant container. Luckily, they settled on the more palatable ideas of a "day in the life" of Lee and a New York-themed narrative. The New York idea won, and Melissa Rivers was fired. But the real winner? Right Guard, which got an hour of primetime television devoted to its new product.

And despite this season's lackluster ratings, the Donald claims that he still has the power to make products fly off the shelves. In a press release put out by Right Guard, Trump says, "Every product to be featured on The Apprentice in the past seven seasons has shown a most desirable increase in both brand awareness and sales." (But then again, Trump also took credit for the success of Trace Adkins hit song, "You're Gonna Miss This," which came out while Akins was featured on Celebrity Apprentice.)

What do you think -- are you more likely to buy products that you see featured on television?