This week on The Apprentice, the teams were tasked to create three :30 radio spots for Clockwork Home Services, which respectively include plumbing, electric and heating and air conditioning services. The upper management of this company was a bit stiff in requiring original commercials without comedy, as they didn’t want to offend their hardworking electricians and plumbers with popular wise ”cracks” (pun intended) that are sometimes associated with them.

Team Tenacity created a nice jingle, thanks to Cindy Lauper, but the voiceovers raced through the spots at lightening speed to inform of too much detail. Not to mention the scripts were a bit bland - vanilla - not very creative. They played it safe, so as not to offend the stuffy CEOs of Clockwork.

Rock Solid, whose team members now include Bret Michaels, Sharon Osbourne and Maria Kanellis - all “rocker” type personalities, pushed the envelope by “cracking” a joke. Although they disobeyed strict instructions, their radio spots were fluent, unique and comprehensive, and they won the task.

Two lessons learned here:

• Less is more. There’s a reason this cliché was coined. Too much information is clutter, only to be ignored. Be direct and concise in your advertising efforts.

• Take risks. If you want to stand out from the competition, you might have to break a few rules. Bret’s team members were against the joke, but he insisted - went with his gut intuition to grab attention, and won.

What risks are you taking to stand out from the competition?