american riviera orchard - what was that all about then?

[Tenmus]

It seems to have gone the same way as their Sussex Royal site. I don't know much about social media or PR, but this all seems pretty odd and ineffectual.

Disgusting photo, @Darklane … I’ve seen it before but also seen footage of supposedly much-loved polo ponies keeling over and dying (heart attack) at the end of a pukka.

So, not a fan of polo at all… just the way they ride, shove, spin, clash and wallop is to me all wrong.

but in dressage for example, used gently and appropriately, they can reinforce an aid ('instruction') to your horse.

I would argue that we could probably dispense with dressage if it meant no spurs.

He really is a horrible man. I couldn't spend 5 minutes in his company.

Selling dog food and dog bowls, Harry will be promoting non breakable, accident proof dog bowls😆

And unbreakable necklaces

Well I see Megan is out doing a trip to a kids hospital and publicising the shit out of it, in a 3 grand dress, I guess to detract from the website failure to launch.

i honestly wonder what they are doing. They are not working royals, where visits are publicised to benefit the organisation. Where that’s their job. Why don’t they go and do some proper charity work . It just looks like she’s tried to use sick kids to benefit her image, because if it was about the kids, you’d not be in there wearing a very delicate 3 grand silk dress.

i honestly think the pair of them are so clueless. Basic common sense would say to dress more appropriately round children, even if just for the optics that it’s not about you and your image.

I agree, @JJathome . I don't get what that's about. She's got a tonne of clothes, most of them more appropriate. This is a royal visit, they keep doing this, it's ridiculous.

i honestly wonder what they are doing. They are not working royals, where visits are publicised to benefit the organisation.

The faux royal visits are utterly bizarre! When she was a working royal (for all of five mins), she griped that she couldn't believe she wasn't paid for doing it. Yet here we are, four years on from them leaving the RF and 'finding freedom' and here is Meghan, bestowing her gracious presence on some 'lucky' sick children to read them a story. Why? WTF is she doing there? Who the fuck does she think she is? The USA doesn't recognise foreign titles, so why is she parading around like she's a visiting royal dignitary and why is the hospital allowing her to use them for her own publicity?

Yes it’s like they can’t decide what they are. One min it’s celebs, the next it’s fake working royals. But they miss the mark on both.

the riviera website so far is a disaster, you can’t launch and then do nothing but a brand name, archewell is a disaster, they have the pretend royal Sussex site that is a non entity, all their interviews and the book have back fired, and if they want to be royal and do royal visits, then at least dress appropriately and don’t make it look like you’re doing it for the cameras by wearing a very delicate 3 grand Oscar de la Renta silk dress and 600 quid shoes when visiting sick kids. Wear something hard wearing, get down and engage. Tell people why you’re there. What are you achieving, why you are publicising it. Not look at me reading to sick children clad in silk.

i honestly keep thinking they can’t be this thick. They surely will learn from their mistakes, get it right. Turn it round. And it’s every time they do something, I sit there and think well that wasn’t clever.

they are clearly rudderless. But seem to lack any form of common sense.

It's because they're clinging on to their royal status. It's the titles, wealth and privilege that have given them this lifestyle.
It's like that Invictus thing in Canada, which wasn't the Games, but like a pre visit. Plus going to see indigenous people? On what basis?

That hospital is another pay to play situation by the looks of it. The Kardashians go there a lot too when positive publicity is required. Hopefully the children enjoyed it regardless, but true philanthropy doesn’t need a camera crew.

To be honest, I think the photos look cringeworthy.

There is a photo of a young boy sitting on the bench beside her, and he is either not feeling very well at all or is mortified to be sitting there in front of, in all likelihood, a bunch of cameras and other sick children. It looks so intrusive and knowing that anyone there would have had to sign NDA's to make sure no one has anything negative to say about the visit, makes it's even more distasteful.

That logo seems over complicated, it looks like the kind of crap you see from the clueless contestants on The Apprentice.
My cousin cared for a couple of retired polo ponies, she couldn't ride them as their poor backs were so damaged by the players being too rough and too heavy. I hate ant sport that involves horses.

As football fans chant, “Who are yer?!”

Why is she doing a royal visit? With cameras and publicity? Well, I suppose we know full well why, but it is a big bowl of cringe.

why is the hospital allowing her to use them for her own publicity?

Idk why the hospital allowed it. Mind you, we have a history of celebs visiting hospitals in this country. Does anyone know if this was a public, non profit hospital?

It doesn’t surprise me that the ponies can’t be ridden anymore @MinnieCauldwell. You only have to look at the size of the pony in relation to the size of the grown man on its back. Riding schools all have weight limits for a reason. The more I think about it, the more they remind me of the overworked donkeys I donate to every month.

its a normal us hospital where you need insurance to be able to use it or pay up front.the USA doesn’t have an nhs system like the uk.

true philanthropy doesn’t need a camera crew

So true ...

I do think on a PR level sneaked photos give a better look, I do have trouble understanding how children are an audience for Meghan or Harry in the US, but if the children enjoyed either the visit or the publicity then in the grand scheme of things it’s a positive. I am interested in the US lens, or if these events even hit their radar. I’m mainly seeing the stuff coming from the US (which in population is probably a small number) as obsessing with Catherine and William both negative and positive rather than discussing Meghan or ARO. The UK for marketing is pretty irrelevant except the bad press of the feud.

I find it really discomforting. There is some very sick little children in those shots. And to be sitting there in thousands of dollars worth of clothes as you’re photographed with them, And use them as pr, is really very grim. There will have been photographers round them as the kids were used as props.

i guess it is free publicity for the hospital. But it’s not good. As there is something very discomforting about using sick kids in this way.

if this was about the kids, that she really wanted to read to them, she’d not have brought cameras, or dressed like that.

In what capacity is she visiting the hospital? Who is she representing apart from herself?

I think the hospital visit was a lovely thing to do.

Just not with cameras.

Well no one, she’s just there as her, she isn’t a working royal or employed by any organisation to do that.