Courtiers the release !

[jeffgoldblum]

In preparation for the books release , and with permission from randompenguin , I thought it would be good to start this thread now !

Totally agree

Meghan spent her whole career working to become famous. Now she has achieved global fame through marriage, she is determined to monetize it. I find it telling that she retained her agent and pr firm past the wedding and that it appears she and Harry were talking to Oprah and Netflix very early on. This was always about using the royal brand to make their own serious money.

This was always about using the royal brand to make their own serious money.

Yes, but they were told No to the idea they had which was to Trade Mark Royal Sussex and they were told No to the idea of part-time Royals.

Then their business model fell flat.

This.

But this means they are intelligent and think long-term and I’m afraid they are not intelligent and they can only see they want “it” (money / fame / money / respect / money / adulation / money) and they want it now.

This was always about using the royal brand to make their own serious money

Yes, it was. It is difficult to unpack what went wrong, though, given that others manage to do it relatively quietly - Zara, Mike, Peter, Edo and his luxury homes business...Were H & M just too noisy about it all? Did they blab too much and therefore damage their branding potential? Did they choose difficult fields to be in, i.e., selling secrets instead of selling milk, horse knowledge or houses?

🤭😁 it never gets old.

I’m afraid they are not intelligent

I think they're intelligent enough. But they're never going back to the UK. He can't just move back to the life he had. He's changed his relationships with his family, with the palace staff, with people entwined with the courts of his father and brother. People who associate with the monarchy for mutual benefits are not going to side with Harry against the king, whoever that is. Harry's loose lips are a liability and make him an unreliable horse to back.

Yeah when you put it like that, I guess too many bridges have been burnt

Especially in light of the bullying claims, no one’s going to be keen to work with/under them again

I think Meghan thinks she is very intelligent. I think she is not. She comes across as arrogant, entitled and not very nice. An intelligent person would be careful with the way they present themselves to the world. She is oblivious to her faults so she is not intelligent at all.
Re Harry, no comment.

Well we know that trauma, victimhood, and issues around identity are strong currency right now, so I think that was a purposeful avenue they chose. That combined with genuine bitterness and wanting to exact revenge on those who "wronged" them - KC, Camilla, PW, TM et al. A lethal combination, which I think has curtailed what they might have been able to achieve tbh. It's not a long term strategy is it? No one likes an endless moaner, it gets boring. Not to mention that several of the people being moaned about are loved by many, while seeing their faults.

I think they were badly advised by the American PR teams who misjudged the early popularity. They assumed that the star power was based around the new couple when it was 'the new couple in the setting of the monarchy'.

Then they had very bad luck and timing with the Covid crisis which accelerated the move to California and stuck them alone in a house together for a year, and they didn't pivot fast enough to new projects to fit inside the new situation.

And then they didn't have someone who cared enough about their future, or had enough power to stand up to them, to stop them doing the Oprah interview in the tone they did it in.

They are not a lost cause at this point - but they've got to start listening to someone experienced in reputation management.

‘Well we know that trauma, victimhood, and issues around identity are strong currency right now, so I think that was a purposeful avenue they chose.’

I think this is a very interesting point. These are subjects they prob expected to resonate with their target Millennials/Gen Z audience. But they’re a little out of date with the zeitgeist, their audience has moved on, and there are already established, and far more credible voices, on topics such as climate change, identity politics, mental health, feminism etc. Even wellness has been done to death and is already experiencing a general backlash.

@MaulPerton from what I can see the big difference between Harry and his cousins is the cousins live relatively 'normal' life's.
Other than Peters milk ad, none of them have tried to make money from their Royal connections or keep a high profile.

They also forget they are “old” for their target audience. They only have 4 or 5 years to achieve what they want; they risk falling into oblivion soon enough if they don’t “conquer” the world soon. Maybe that’s the reason for the shenanigans.

I wonder where they will be when Meghan is 50 and Harry in his late forties. Charles will be very elderly then if still alive and either William will be in the throne, or he will be very much at the forefront. Anne will be elderly and not able to do what she’s doing now in all likelihood. The Wessexes will be doing their best to assist. Camilla does not look like a woman who will be active in nine years time either. I wonder where H and M will be on their journey and whether anyone will give a stuff about their links to the RF any longer.

Everything is going to look very different then. They will be out in the US , adrift from their families. Their children will be American wirh no understanding of their father’s roots. I can’t see H and M as hot property on chat shows , doing podcasts etc then. We will see.

Sorry, cross posted ! I see we are saying similar things!

@LondonWolf @LaBrujaPiruja

Your posts above are accurate. Understanding how to present oneself to the outside world is hugely important, and apparently not realising that an image built on undermining others may be a flawed strategy would seem to spell big problems going forward for H & M.

There will be many who adore them who will want to work for them. So this is not true. There are many people who don't believe the allegations.

But why would you not believe the allegations?

Some posters have been criticised for “being” haters and it has been questioned how is it that you hate them or you don’t like them if you don’t know them.
Works both ways. How is it that they can be adored? Isn’t adoring them ‘per se’ as stupid as hating them ‘per se’? Why are those criticising them with some reasoning behind still being labelled as haters? Why is it that the adoring crowd cannot understand their actions can be discussed and criticised if someone feels these actions are worth criticising?
I started this route liking H&M; I really dislike them nowadays and part of the reason for this is the senseless adoration for such vacuous characters from their fans. It does not help that they (H&M and their fandom) are always denigrating other characters (inc. of family) to prove their hypothetical points.

@MidnightConstellation in ten years I think Harry will be back as a working royal. I'm not so sure about Meghan they may end up like Ann, one working, one not.
While she likes the limelight etc I think it will take a mammoth amount of work to have her accepted by the public.

I don’t agree because Harry is just not fitted to public life. He hates the media. He hates doing mundane meet and greet. He has lost all credibility with the public . I don’t think William would ever want Harry to be a working Royal either. He can’t be trusted . He’s too volatile and thin skinned. Agree there is no way back for Meghan. She would never want that anyway.

I’m not sure she wouldn’t want it. There will be a moment when she realises she has not achieved the stardom and $$$ she wanted and being a working Royal would be a more than palatable second best. Being an obscure and almost forgotten Duchess in a dusty ranch in California is what is not for her.