The popular television program "The Apprentice", starring millionaire (though often bankrupt) real estate developer Donald Trump, and his various groups of "fired" or "not fired" "Apprentices" provides an interesting mass media-sponsored example of hegemonic reinforcement of corporate values, in the guise of reality TV show "entertainment". "The Apprentice" and its star offer implicit support for, and even a sort of general advertisement of the "rewards" to be taken from the corporate world, that is, should one be smart, lucky, young, good-looking, and play the game "right". The not-so-implicit message of this supposedly merely fun and entertaining weekly series is that if one manage to become a corporate champion, like Trump's "winners", one will likely be handsomely rewarded in the end, much like the winning contestant on this show, e.g., with a plumb job (like those sparingly handed out by Trump himself on the show), and all the spoils that accompany it: material success, prestige, recognition. This show may be entertaining to many, but it also reinforces all the wrong values of corporate greed; ruthless competition, and accomplishment for mere material gain.

             On the show itself, the winning "Apprentice" receives a six-figure job for a year, national recognition for being a rising star of American capitalism (at least on television, but television is very convincing), and enough national exposure, including name recognition, that yesterday's obscure nobody need now never worry about being unemployed (or underemployed) or about having to "sell himself/herself" based on anything less than top-level corporate experience (and lots of public demonstrations of his or her business "skills". "The Apprentice" functions as a sort of Cinderella story for the business world (or TV's version of it), with the grand prize being not a handsome prince (or princess) but a handsome job.