The Associate - Alena Shwarz/ The Towerlight

Team PROFessionals has taken the lead in The Associate competition, winning the first case presented to them: a 30-second commercial and full-page print ad.

Working together as an advertising agency for McCormick, Team PROFessionals created a commercial that featured team member Stacy Ruddy as a mom coming home late from work with little time and a hungry family to feed.

Their print ad showed the affordability of the product and included a coupon.

“The highlight of the past week was Sunday, the day we came together to do the commercial,” Ruddy said. “We had the concept, knew what we wanted to do and we had a blast. We all enjoyed being together and working as a team.”

Each member of Team PROFessionals won immunity from being eliminated from the competition as well as a dinner, gourmet spices and a cookbook from McCormick.

Losing group Team Rubicon created the slogan, “We Challenge You to Try All 80,” in reference to McCormick’s 80 different Dry Seasoning Mixes, and used this as a focal point of their advertisement.

Their commercial presented a mom with a hungry family to feed, but they also showed several different meals and snacks being prepared with McCormick spices as opposed to Team PROFessional’s decision to cook one meal.

Ken DeFontes, president and CEO of Baltimore Gas and Electric and the competition’s “Donald,” said “Both teams did a great job. It was remarkable to see how much you could accomplish in such a short period of time. You really blew us away,”

After facing the judges in the boardroom, it was announced that Team Rubicon’s team leader, Giovanna Lamartina, would not go forward in the competition.

“I feel like if we would have been more committed as a team or worked together more as a team, we could have tied things together and made it more fluid,” Lamartina said. “Everyone was a little flustered in the beginning. We all had different, great ideas. If we sat down and looked at it with perspective, we could have created something better.”

Heather Chism, human resources director and senior associate of Johnson, Mirmiran & Thompson, introduced the team’s second case: recommending a new performance management system for JMT.

The teams will present their ideas in the boardroom next Tuesday.