Recap: Advertising Genius Lee Tae Baek Episode 11

Going through a rough patch...

Episode 11

Taebaek speaks first, asking why they are here. Ahri and Addie both provide the standard answers about coming to congratulate them on their new company but Taebaek is skeptical.
 

Daddy Baek recognizes Taebaek from the time he messed up the 100 years Insulation takeover. Then his secretary runs up to the group just as they make their way back to the party, calling Jiyoon, "Miss" and bowing respectfully. Uh-oh. Will her cover be blown now? Nope, it's too early for that. Jiyoon explains he's an old acquaintance of the family and ask to speak to him in private. She shoos a worried Taebaek back to the party.

Everyone at the opening party is surprised to see the uninvited guests who apparently came to congratulate them. JinGa plays along and congrats Addie on his promotion. Lee comes forth and while Ahri is surprised, Addie quickly realizes she's jumped ship. Addie and Taebaek exhange more barbed pleasantries when Ahri spots granny.

Ahri approaches granny respectfully. Soran mocks her but granny's understanding and comforting words seem to penetrate her cold heart.

Baek cuts straight to the point and orders her back to BK. She refuses and he threatens to destroy Giant Ad. With a wavering voice, she tells him it's her birthday today (which Baek obviously forgot) and he's always managed to make her feel regrets on the day she was born. :( Bad move daddy. But damn if this doesn't mean some noble idiocy might be looming.

Jiyoon composed herself and returns to the party. Addie also came prepared, with a birthday gift for her - a fountain pen. He tells her the door is always open should she chooses to return. Taebaek interrupts by reminding them the party is over and they should be leaving. Subtle, aren't we? Well, Addie takes the hint and leaves with Ahri.

In the car ride, Ahri asks if he thinks Jiyoon would return, since she's obviously in love. Addie doesn't seem to think that is a major problem since their relationship is doomed - Taebaek and Jiyoon might work, but Taebaek and Hyunjin is impossible .

As they clean up, Taebaek asks hesitantly if they are officially dating now. Instead of answering, Jiyoon parades the ring she's wearing. Aww....so adorable them two. Taebaek starts wondering how to win over her aunt, the next biggest obstacle (that he knows of currently) but Jiyoon thinks he can rest easy over that problem - since aunt is busy working her charms on JinGa. Wow, the lady sure works fast. LOL.

When she's about to give him her number (for Jiyoon related matters of course :P), competition arrives in the form of Lee. Omo I can watch them all day. When her distraction (JinGa) is gone, she immediately seeks out Jiyoon and pesters her to leave.

The atmosphere is great at Giant Ad until Soran serves a grave reminder that they haven't had any business for the past month. Their tainted reputation is preventing any real progress. JinGa returns in jovial mood to announce their pay is due today. Taebaek sees through the chink in his armor (as did everyone else actually). He's figured out that JinGa's been borrowing heavily to come up with the pay. Money is tight they might not last another month. JinGa even considers selling his massage chair (aka thinking chair) but it's hardly worth much. Taebaek takes a pay cut (enough to pay their rent) so that JinGa would have enough for the running of the company,

While the whole team are eating their noodle lunch, albeit pretty messily - a well-dressed man shows up, disgusted with the mess they made to the table and spouting cleaning methods. Ok, he's pretty hilarious with his OCD-like preoccupation that the guys think he's some cleaning detergent salesman. How wrong they are! I guess they've been out of business for so long they can't even recognize a business opportunity even when it presents itself directly in their face. Hihi. This comical new guy (Shim Hyung-taek) is the Representative of Forever Furniture, Ahn JaeJun.

Now that they realize who he is, or rather what he represents (business!!!!), they quickly clean up and accord him the proper welcome. Though if he's any ordinary client, he would have left eons ago. LOL. He's here because of the Everest Ad. And they quickly learn that he drives a hard bargain. Hahaha. First they have to prepare a proposal in a week. Then they have to do it without any advance money. At least, he does promises a long term partnership if he likes what they have to offer.

But because he seemed like a weird guy, the guys run a background check in case he turns out to be a swindler. Results: He is for real. Studied Art in France. Loves fashion and luxury items. From his expensive taste, they deduce that CF fee could be worth up to 50 billion. However, he's not easy to pleased. He's known as the "proposal killer", which I suppose refers to how he shoots down proposals. Not that they have any choice, it's their only chance.

It's much quieter at BK Ad. As Addie stares at his name plate, he recalls his conversation with dad. Dad has decided to quit, not because he blames Addie for not telling him about the takeover but because he did not want to stand before his ambition. Dad thinkshe's got a good chance to succeed.

It's time for markey survey. JinGa assigns them to proceed in twos - Taebaek and Jiyoon as newlyweds (both smiles embarassedly), JinGa and Lee as remarried couple, Yichan chooses Miss Kong so Soran is stuck with Hassan.

Jiyoon disagrees with Taebaek's romanticized notion of marriage. To her, marriage is equivalent to love and reality whereas Taebaek thinks marriage is love plus love. LOL. Anyway, Jiyoon finally gets why so many lovers split up during wedding preprations.

JinGa-Lee couple fares better, enjoying their rounds in the furniture shop, reminiscing about the good old days when she's young and pretty and when he's cool and "bad". Ah, they are so cute together.

Meanwhile, Soran and Miss Kong are too busy fighting each other to be useful.

It's back to the idea board. JinGa tries to gather everyone's impression of furniture. Soran thinks it's expensive, Yichan thinks it's jealousy (huh? lol) and Hassan thinks it's salary (due to a past experience). The lovebirds, Taebaek could only think of marriage while Jiyoon relates it to lovers. Muahahaa. JinGa teases them for being so .... lovey-dovey. Lee proves to be most insightful by pointing out that furnitures are unchanging - used since the old days by newlyweds and eventually passed over to their daughter. JinGa lights up - he's got an idea. Later we see them poring over a drawing of Joseon era.

Jiyoon thinks that the idea doesn't quite channel their original style. Taebaek admits it's not perfect but it's safer to cater to their client's taste which Jiyoon notes is totally unlike him. Going to the furniture shop has imbued him with a sense of realism, especially when he realizes that people can't even get married if they don't have money.  Ah, so he's graduated from being an idealist?

Taebaek also intends to pay a visit to aunt, trying to get into her good grace. Jiyoon tells her they got paid today so aunt hints that he should buy something from her shop for his family. Oh dear, he hasn't got much to begin with. Well, at least Soran and granny are pleased with the gifts.
  

 Rep Ahn mercilessly rejects their proposal. What he wants is an ad with the furniture its main focus not to to serve as background. He throws the proposal at them and Taebaek nearly loses it. JinGa asks for another chance but Ahn is considering BK Ad. Taebaek asks for a chance to compete with BK. Ahn has no objections if they can convince BK of that. Jeez, they really can't do this the easy way can they...Sigh. Saw this coming. 

Jiyoon and JinGa offers to speak to BK but Taebaek insists on doing this by himself. Taebaek returns to BK amid much derision but to his credit, he keeps his cool. And when he puts forth his request to Addie, he is humble and bows respectfully, appealing for his help. Even Addie finds his behaviour foreign and asks him if he thinks he can protect Jiyoon this in his current state. He dismisses him by saying he'll contact him later about it.

He returns to the company and everyone thinks the chances are slim. Just then, Jiyoon receives a call from Addie inviting her for a meal. Taebaek wants to object but knows he can't.

Jiyoon meets Addie at a fancy restaurant. With fancy grape wine analogies, he still tries to convince her to return to BK, where she'd be better groomed by HIM. She's noncommital but he eventualy does offer her a chance - to compete for the furniture ad.

Taebaek waits for her worriedly. He apologizes to her, feels like he disappointed her. Jiyoon would rather he directs his energy into the PT. Taebaek asks suddenly if she's ever considered doing something else other than copywriting? Like...cheerleading (and he breaks into a smile!) since she's always cheering for him. LOL.Aw...he's recovered his fighting spirit.

Addie reports BK Ad's encouraging revenue to Baek who reminds him there is something else he should be working hard at. Addie expresses his desire to fight square and fair (that's a first for him, atta boy) against Taebaek both to win Jiyoon's heart and to retain his pride. Baek accepts his decision but reminds him that he'd have to bear the consequences of that decision.

BK team is working on the furniture ad now. As usual, Ahri gives a thorough rundown of Ahn's background and conclude that he likes challenging and novel stuffs. Addie is dissatisfied with their concept and challenge them to come up with something new... Both teams are working their ass off for the new ad.

Giant team is still stuck, to the extent Lee actually says she's suffering from idea constipation. During their idle chit chat, Taebaek is upset JinGa sold his thinking chair. The mood dampens a little and everyone is dismissed for the day.

Jiyoon later chids him for bringing up the chair since JinGa is the one most affected. Taebaek explains that he has an affinity for things with memories. It reminds it from the time he was forced out from his home and all the things he treasured were destroyed in the process.

Jiyoon shares her memories about mum, who's also a copywriter. Mum used to read and drink on this rocking chair, so whenever she looks at one, she's reminded of her. She also finds it interesting that the rocking chair happens to be a product of Forever Furniture. Taebaek thinks Forever Furniture and memories kind of go together. In fact, Jiyoon is equally inspired and comes up with a copy right away, "Furniture is memory, memory is Forever". They're on to something...

Meanwhile, BK team is also hard at work. After confirming that they have enough budget, Addie asks for 1 billion. Everyone looks pretty surprised and since I'm not sure what it's for right now, I assume the amount is pretty staggering.

Giant Ad does not have the same luxury. They recruits volunteers of different ages as models for their ad.

Addie and Ahri is at a gallery, dealing with an artist? Whatever their idea is, it should be pretty fancy and artistic. Ahri notes tha Addie actually looks excited this time around.

It's finally showdown day. Giant team is nervous but Taebaek is pretty confident. I hope so for them too. They can't always fail right. Ahri thinks it's too over that someone in his current position has to attend the PT personally. If Giant fails, would Jiyoon return to BK? Addie says cryptically that it's possible to prevent them from failing. Wait, he's betting on Giant to win? Why? Another trap????

Giant goes first. Taebaek explains how furnitures are closely related with many fond memoeries in our lives with the help of pictures (shot with their volunteer models)...and ends with their copy Jiyoon came up with. Ahn seems happy but I'M worried because Addie and gang looks relaxed. Sigh.

Addie asks for a change of venue for their PT. Oh dear, bad feeling about this. Addie explains that they haven't prepared any ad, but they've prepared a set of new furnitures. They've done the market survey and decides a change of image is in order to propel the sales since Forever Furniture has always been associated with classical designs. They've prepared furnitures designed by world famous artists. In other words, they're not selling furniture, they're selling art. Their planned promotion will also be in the same lines, exhibiting the furnitures in a park like arts. It's a kind of branding campaign proposal. Their copy goes like this: "Change the life, change the furniture."

It's obvious who the winner of the challenge is. Sigh. Now what?

But there's a twist. Ahn is acting on Chairman Baek's orders. Damn. Then again, Ahn says that even without Baek's orders, BK won fair and square. Baek is satisfied with how Giant is pushed to the precipice. He instructs the secretary to call for Taebaek and Giant's Rep.

Everyone is understandably down at Giant. Jiyoon and Miss Kong is out buying coffee for everyone. Soran spoils the mood even more by asking to quit. Just then, Baek's secretary arrives to invite the two guys over. Jiyoon returns in time to see them leave.

Taebak is wary about the meeting. Jiyoon rushes over too when she finds out they are going to meet her dad. JinGa offers to go in alone since Taebaek did messed up Baek's big takeover previously. Baek asks JinGa to fire Jiyoon, his daughter. Will he?

Jiyoon arrives just as JinGa leaves the room. He tells her that she has to leave Giant!!!!!! No!!!!

Thoughts:

Arg...I'm so frustrated for them. Sigh. It's so hard to see them keep stumbling in their baby steps to succeed. And they will succeed I know, but I guess success doesn't come easy. I thought their idea wasn't bad but even I have to admit that Addie's idea is much more revolutionary and exciting. Furthermore, it certainly caters to Ahn's artistic sense and background.

It's high time Jiyoon is outed and it's so typical of Baek to do it this way. In a way Baek and Addie is so similar in that they treat their personal lifes like it's business. Addie confesses like he's selling a proposal to a client, while Baek likes to squeeze the life out of his oppponents before he delivers the final blow. Jiyoon is probably gonna delay telling Taebaek about her dad for as long as possible so Baek might have just pushed her hands, which may not be such a bad thing. Their relationship is progressing quite smoothly that she's going to have to open up about herself sooner or later. I'm just a little worried because Taebaek seems to nurse a grudge against BK Group. I just hope there's no spillover of that grudge to Jiyoon.

On the other hand, I thought Addie have changed in that he willingly heads into the challenge for a fair fight, which is something he admits he doesn't do. And even Ahri noticed how he actually looks like he's enjoying himself. Dare I hope to see more changes? Or will he continue to be Baek's puppet and marry Jiyoon against her wishes?