Harry and Meghan make surprise phone calls to young leaders in the US

[PrincessTigger]

I actually really liked this video, it’s them doing what they have always done best. I want to see more things like this, hope it marks a change in tactics.

It also has a very “royal” feel: e.g. there have been recent reports about a split but they’re not arguing in the gutter they’re rising above it and proving them wrong, they’re using their spotlight to shine onto other people, etc.

Only criticism: why are they filming people on the phone?! Makes me think of The Apprentice 😂 use Zoom!!

https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/royal-family/harry-meghan-young-leaders-surprise-call-b2386408.html

Of course, then people could complain she keeps her beady eyes on him so he doesn't run away or fakes loving looks at him.

@Mylovelygreendress You can meander to criticise W&K all you want…but not the sainted H&M…

Ah thank you !

Yes it was clearly set up but I thought apart from Meghan having to cover for Harry with ‘they don’t know it yet’ they came across very well, smiley & likeable. And I’m definitely not a fan but I think this is a positive move for them rather than the victim status they have been chasing.

Very different tone to their previous PR releases - no clinging or gazing into each other's eyes. Infact they didn't look directly at each other at all. Maybe the result of them being the parents of two young children and knackered, or may be that Meghan simply cannot fake it any more.

I think this is a positive move for them rather than the victim status they have been chasing.

Shame it came out on exactly the same day as their PR pieces saying Spotify didn’t give them enough support and they are still waiting for an apology from the Royal Family, then! 🤣

Hardly a 'surprise' unless everyone has a spare television crew in their kitchen.....

Just Meghan-bashing from those who wait with baited breath for her to blink or sneeze so they can start ten threads twisting it into ways to attack her.

There was a thread recently saying that H&M need to start doing as many non-controversial charitable/public appearances as possible and that no one could possibly criticise them for that, they do one non-controversial thing and oh look they're being raked over the coals and having their every movement scrutinised.

They've barely been seen in months but of course making a phone call makes them "publicity hounds." It reminds me of when Archie was born, there were half a dozen threads besides themselves with outrage at having to wait a couple of days to see the baby (I remember someone posting in all caps "SHOW US THE BABY WE PAY FOR RIGHT NOW!"), accusing Meghan of having some dark motive in "wanting to hide the baby", then the second the photos were released, half a dozen threads calling Meghan a fame-whore, publicity-seeker, saying no one cares, no one wants to see her baby, why is she releasing photos of a baby who's far far down the line of descent, she's just copying Kate how pathetic, doesn't she realise no one cares about her or her baby, can't believe she posted for photos in Windsor Palace how tacky and grasping. The definition of damned if you do damned if you don't.

Really people just find Meghan-bashing a really fun sport. You can practically hear them salivating whenever Meghan's name comes up in a google news alert for the chance to scrutinise some new photo and trash everything about her.

ajandjjmum
Very different tone to their previous PR releases - no clinging or gazing into each other's eyes.
Maybe the result of them being the parents of two young children and knackered, or may be that Meghan simply cannot fake it any more.

Maybe they've taken on board that all the doe-eyed gazing and holding hands was getting some criticism/mockery (it can't just be here it's commented on, surely?), so have decided it's sensible to dial it down a bit.
I thought it made a nice change that Meghan wasn't looking at Harry like he had a photo of a very cute kitten taped to his cheek.

@pinkgraffitirat well said

@pinkgraffitirat

Well said. Don't forget she was wearing beige. A sin. She said she wore 'neutral colours' a lot whilst in the RF so as not to clash or bring attention to herself. And shock horror, beige suits her! So she was always going to wear beige. And what she was saying was a lie. Apparently.

No, I'm not making this up!

and they are not looking at each other. yet when they do they get slated for that,

There it is, folks.

If Meghan looks at her husband she's clinging and the marriage is fake, if she doesn't, the marriage is clearly in trouble.

2. The RF don't set up cameras at both ends of their phonecall to film people acting impressed by the 'surprise'.
Haha of course they do.

If Meghan looks at her husband she's clinging and the marriage is fake, if she doesn't, the marriage is clearly in trouble

Yep. There's been a squillion posts of how nauseating they are when she holds his hand/touches his arm/looks at him/doe eyes/leave him alone/stop pawing him. On and on

Yet when she doesn't do this, she is criticised for not looking at him and the marriage is obviously on dodgy ground. I would like to think it was just an observation, and for some posters, it is.
For others it's excitement salivating that things might not be rosy 🤣

@pinkgraffitirat well said! It's so bloody accurate!

Yes, William's is much more fake because the way they filmed and marketed it was "Earthshot set up a burger fan in a public place but when random passersbys stopped, to their surprise William was inside!" When actually it was filmed on a closed off street, the "random passersbys" were all cast ahead of time, they knew William would be inside the van, and were being directed to act completely shocked and surprised to see him (even doing bits direct to camera saying "I was so shocked to see Prince William I froze"), and then directed to act engaged and interested in William's lecture about climate change. It was all scripted and staged.

The news even reported on it as "William shocks diners with unexpected appearance in burger van" so they're clearly trying to pass it off as real.

Not to mention the hypocrisy of William delivering a lecture on environmental issues when his private jet use is so high and he owns his own private helicopter which he routinely uses to travel short distances between his various houses.

Whereas Harry and Meghan didn't make any pretence that the phone calls had been pre-arranged ahead of time and the young people obviously had been told to set up a camera ahead of time and knew to expect a phone call.

When the first girl answers the phone Harry and Meghan literally say two words, don't introduce themselves or give their names, and she immediately says "Oh my God" (not in a surprised way, but the way anyone would if they were introduced to a celeb and couldn't quite believe it) but it's an audio-only call, not a video call, so how would she even know it was Harry and Meghan just from the word "hi"? Obviously she'd been told ahead of time "please arrange to have someone filming you for 2pm and Harry and Meghan will phone you at 2.05pm."

@pinkgraffitirat another brilliant post. your on a roll

When are going to give up royal titles? Until then, they are hypocrites, no matter what they do.

A typical ridiculous comment.

You missed that I said 'maybe'.

None of us know - time will tell - but I was saying that there was a distinct change in tone, not dictating what might have created that, but suggesting options.

But dig in if it makes you happy!

Even if they did, it wouldn't make a blind bit of difference, they'd still be world famous.
And if they did, detractors of them would find something else they should do, there would be goalpost moving.

Exactly.

All the headlines I saw said that the Sussexes had “surprised” the people they called, so it has been reported in exactly the same way. Journalistic hyperbole probably. But the point remains that both videos were staged. Because they had to be. One was not “more staged” than the other. That is just silly. I have no problem with either video. They are what they are. What I can’t understand is people insisting that one is
more fake than the other 🤷‍♀️

These little films seem to be the way many things are publicised these days. They feel a bit strange to me probably because I'm old and are used to articles based on press releases. They are basically achieving the same thing though, raising the profile of something famous people support that might help others.

This and the William one are of course staged but I don't think that it is to their detriment, it's just not what I'm used to. Anything that promotes environmentally friendly food and packaging and ways to help people negotiate social media (I'm not totally sure from the pictures what Harry's thing is probably because I think it's a US initiative), regardless, anything that helps is good.

On a different note I thought Meghan looked lovely in the beige dress, she does casual well.

I don't have a problem with either video but the William one, they're pretending that "actors" are members of the public, and they were instructed to pretend not to know that William was in the van and to actually have dialogue claiming to have been shocked when they knew all along that he was there. The thing was marketed to the media as "Earthshot set up a van in a public place, watch what happened when ordinary passers by came to take a look" when that's just not what happened.

There's no similar level of pretence with the Harry and Meghan video since the young people aren't members of the public, but people leading initiatives who have won a major award. I did see that one person gave a quote saying she didn't know ahead of time that it would be Harry and Meghan on the phone so I was wrong above, but I don't see that there's anything to suggest it was staged or faked.

It's pretty standard to film people who have just won major awards. I've had to do the exact same myself whenever my company has won an award.

I don't see why it's unbelievably that they told the award winners "Someone from RT Youth Power Fund will be calling you at 2pm, please ensure you have your Zoom set up in good time to capture this on video." Then the "someone from the fund" turned out to be H&M. That's not fake, and there's really no comparison with having actors pretend to be members of the public.

(And thank you for the nice comments everyone! I just have too much time on my hands right now )

But both scenarios were “staged”. Both were trying to achieve an aim. And in both cases it was journalists who used the word “surprised”. It really doesn’t matter who the people involved were, or if they knew that William / the Sussexes were the “surprise” or not. They may well have had to film the “surprised” looks more than once in both cases. In which case the surprised looks were fake. We don’t know. And it isn’t a competition ffs 🙄