Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To think the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge need to work on their PR strategy?

475 replies

SamanthaBrique · 09/03/2016 08:47

In recent months they've been accused of being work shy and what's their solution? To release photos of them and the children on a luxury skiing break! Now I don't begrudge them a holiday, but why make it so public? If they wanted to release photos of the kids then they could've just released a few shots of George and Charlotte at Kensington Palace or Anmer Hall. I don't know who is advising them on their PR but AIBU to think they need to engage someone a bit more in touch with public sentiment?

OP posts:
BillSykesDog · 31/03/2016 12:55

The thing you are missing is that Kate doesn't need public opinion to live her life. She is protected from all the vitriol; it need not affect her at all

If you think that then you're astoundingly ignorant of history. I suggest you go and have a read up on what happens to Royal families who think that they are immune from public opinion and can carry on as they wish no matter how many people they piss off.

Marie Antoinette might be a good place to start.

I don't think they are anywhere close to that today. But should the Queen pass away and W become heir presumptive I think if K continues to sit on her arse then she'll be on a slippery slope.

gonetoseeamanaboutadog · 31/03/2016 13:50

Bill
You cannot seriously be suggesting that Britain would behead/imprison the monarchy if it decided to abolish it? Or that William and Kate would be devastated to lose their public role? Or, indeed, that the monarchy isn't winding down regardless of what Kate does or doesn't do?

No. To all intents and purposes, she is going about her life unaffected by your views, and in all probability be doing so in twenty years.

gonetoseeamanaboutadog · 31/03/2016 13:54

There's a great deal of difference between not particularly warming to a person and criticising them for everything under the sun, regardless of mitigating circumstances. You don't want a monarchy and this unremarkable, inoffensive young mother is the scapegoat.

WhatTheActualFugg · 31/03/2016 14:52

Marie Antoinette might be a good place to start. Oh yes, be warned Duchess, the Daily Mail might start to come after you with a guillotine. Shock Hmm Confused [big grin]

Prince William will be Heir Apparent, not Heir Presumptive. Because his father is not going to somehow conceive an older child.

WhatTheActualFugg · 31/03/2016 14:54

And I've never met anyone who would want Kate's life. It would be my idea of hell. Totally this. The woman needs a bloody medal if you ask me.

FirstWeTakeManhattan · 31/03/2016 15:00

There's a great deal of difference between not particularly warming to a person and criticising them for everything under the sun, regardless of mitigating circumstances. You don't want a monarchy and this unremarkable, inoffensive young mother is the scapegoat

Who is this aimed at? Who has criticised Kate for 'everything under the sun'?

She certainly attracts criticism in her right, for things she has or hasn't done. Like anyone else, frankly. Why on earth should she be exempt from the public having an opinion about her?

gonetoseeamanaboutadog · 31/03/2016 15:10

Opinions which are open to evaluation and in many cases on this thread are unreasonable and spiteful.

annamae · 31/03/2016 16:02

William is a very BAD tempered and Kate is aloof ( don't be fooled by the 'sweet' persona she displays with her little purse like a virgin).

She's trying very hard to be the opposite of Diana.

OllyBJolly · 31/03/2016 16:22

*William is a very BAD tempered and Kate is aloof ( don't be fooled by the 'sweet' persona she displays with her little purse like a virgin).

She's trying very hard to be the opposite of Diana*

Just HTAF do you know this?! I'm very anti royal and nothing would make me happier than seeing them all slide into the background. I have no axe to grind with the individuals. I don't know them. I get very frustrated at all this anti-Kate stuff - she nabbed her prince, she's lazy, he was her golden meal ticket. It's very sexist. Maybe she just fancied the pants off him - the fact he was heir to the throne might have been part of it, none of us know.

A close friend works for the royal family - you know what? He admits he doesn't really know them either. Just as people know a different work Olly, home Olly and hormonal Olly.

WhatTheActualFugg · 31/03/2016 16:27

Wow Anna. You put your point across in such an objective, intelligent and articulate manner. proves gonetoseeamanaboutadogs point for her

Hmm

Do you display such vile tendencies towards people you don't know in RL?

Wasabipeas · 31/03/2016 16:51

My career is what you would describe as 'PR for high profile people'
More business personalities than celebs, but broadly, I get hired to rehabilitate troubled reputations as well as improve and cement established one. I am going to go out of a limb here and I say I know a bit about how their PR strategy will have been put together, and what their priorities are.

In brief, there are always those media outlets who will be a 'lost cause'. You can have a good relationship with the journo on a personal level but if their editorial policy is to dislike a particular person, then you can't do much about it, and don't waste too much time trying to win them over. In the Cambridge's case, this is the Daily Mail website.
This is most likely not because the individual journos dislike them, but because the frothy readership always dislikes them, and the articles are clickbait.

There will also be the higher-value outlets, which are more critical for converting or cementing opinion.
I would wager that most of these are non-UK publications. The US and Asia will be strategically more important, because the royal family have strategic significance for international trade.
And they aren't fussed about royalty acting like middle classes, or aping the behaviour of their parents. They value the quintessential British-Ness that the Cambridges are playing up to with their staged photos.

There is virtually zero debate on the monarchy or civil list in the UK, and never has been. So we aren't the intended audience for the PR strategy. They'll be here regardless of what the Daily Mail- reading oiks think of Kate's hemlines.

The strategy is focused on the bigger fish, globally. So no, it doesn't need a rethink. It seems to be doing ok for now...

annamae · 31/03/2016 16:54

How do you know I don't know them.? It's common knowledge to those who work in that environment.

sparechange · 31/03/2016 17:03

Anna,

It isn't common knowledge at ALL
I work in their wider world, and I haven't heard anything remotely along the lines you have suggested.

SenecaFalls · 31/03/2016 17:04

Wasabipeas I found your post interesting. I'm in the US. Coverage on the royals, including Will and Kate, tends to be very positive here. In fact, just last night, there was a piece on the national evening news about William's recent participation in a rescue, complete with interview by the rescuee. And every time new pictures of the children are released, that's on the nightly news as well. Makes a nice break from Donald Trump.

raisedbyguineapigs · 31/03/2016 17:39

The thing is, it won't be people in the US ( who love our Royal family, but presumably don't want to join the Commonwealth and have them for their own Head of State) who decide whether the Monarchy survives in it's current form. I would hope it would be the British people and the other members of the Commonwealth who have our monarch as their Head of State. I would hope, for the sake of democracy that they are there by the grace of the people, and can be removed by the will of the people they serve. The Queen realises this, and behaves accordingly. All of the members of the Royal Family should feel and do the same. At present, none of the younger Royals do this, IMO. maybe Harry

Wasabipeas · 31/03/2016 18:25

But raised, there is no meaningful pressure AT ALL to replace/remove the monarchy.
So why have a campaign for something which is under any threat? That makes no sense from a PR perspective.

What you don't waste time on is trying to turn a few grumps with a philosophical objection. The banks didn't do it with the left-wing press in 2009, the unions didn't do it with the right wing press in 2011, the royals aren't going to do it now.

You can complain that they aren't doing enough to woo and impress you, as an individual cynic, but I'm afraid you can't criticise their PR strategy...

gonetoseeamanaboutadog · 31/03/2016 18:57

If I was Kate, unless I was visiting a charitable institution where I would be as nice as she clearly is, I'd be levitating, I'd be so aloof.

BillSykesDog · 31/03/2016 19:39

I'm not suggesting that she would have her head cut off no, but the fact remains that if people who are in a position largely by the consent of the people begin to ignore those people's opinions on you then there are almost always consequences of some sort or another.

A modern example is Juan Carlos of Spain who was very unpopular which contributed to his decision to abdicate and weakened the Spanish monarchy.

If K&W decide they don't care about public opinion and can do what they like and it turns against them they may well find they are out on their ear. And they won't dictate the terms of leaving and would need to hope (like Juan Carlos) they still have enough good will left to leave on reasonable terms with the throne still intact for their parents. It's entirely possible if very unpopular that they could largely lose much of the wealth entailed to their roles such as estates and art.

BillSykesDog · 31/03/2016 19:40

I don't even think K&W would be silly enough to think they can do what they like without consequences, even they try and do a bare minimum.

SamanthaBrique · 31/03/2016 19:46

Well quite, BillSykes. I can't believe anyone actually thought you were suggesting beheading them!

OP posts:
gonetoseeamanaboutadog · 31/03/2016 19:59

I don't think they'd care much, Bill. Anyway, they clearly are useful in international terms to the people who hold the purse strings; that will be all that matters.

raisedbyguineapigs · 31/03/2016 20:07

You are probably right, Wasabi. It's massively unfair though. Not only to the Queen and DoE, who are working into their 90's through a sense of in a generation or two but to the public that they can do as little as they like, and be as unlikeable as they like and still be our Heads of State. I would imagine things might change in a generation or two.

BillSykesDog · 31/03/2016 20:51

Even if that's true gone they would have to remain so. If they're doing sod all then they won't even be much use to them. One international tour a year isn't going to make them useful enough to anybody to keep the wolf from the door. Particularly when the Queen has gone to watch the great steeplechase in the sky.

gonetoseeamanaboutadog · 01/04/2016 00:31

The PR strategy (international one) is about more than the big yearly tour (and won't be down to just those two anyway), and as someone as said upthread, it seems to be working.

SamanthaBrique · 02/04/2016 16:25

Something I was briefly musing on today - when a member of the royal family finds "The One", is there some sort of police check involved and do their exes have to sign some sort of confidentiality agreement? Surely Kate had boyfriends before William but are they gentlemen who don't talk or has someone told them that they'd better not?

OP posts:
Please create an account

To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.

This thread is closed and is no longer accepting replies. Click here to start a new thread.