Backseat PR drivers: Just for fun how would you manage the Royal PR?

[wordler]

Light-hearted or serious suggestions - let's get all those bright ideas from us backseat drivers on the royal and ex royal communications output / and or what to do to improve their public images going forward. Or what not to do.

Pick a team or do them all:

Charles and Camilla

The Wales Fam

Harry and Meghan

The best of the rest - Edinburghs, Anne's clan

For the brave among you - The Yorks

Republicans, play along with your worst suggestions that you hope they will do to bring down the monarchy.

Agreed - the assumption of two princes with wives who’d happily work full time doing the same number of engagements as Charles / Ann did in their 30s/40s really hasn’t worked out.

in the meantime, the two York girls were told to make their own way and have done. Really hard to make them back track, particularly as they have both married on the understanding to their husbands they would have a title but not expected to do much royal work.

Harry is still very popular, stories on him get much more traction /engagement than other royals.

https://www.ipsos.com/en-uk/latest-attitudes-towards-royal-family-january-2024

However, Prince Harry’s and the Duchess of Sussex’s ratings have fallen since last summer. Around one in four (23%) now say they have a favourable opinion of Prince Harry, which is down 7 percentage points since July. Those favourable towards the Duchess have also fallen 5 percentage points, to around one in five (18%). Around half say they feel unfavourable towards each of them (47%, 54%).

Popularity is failing and on a downward curve at least in UK - most people who do read about them a large proportion do it in a car crash way.

There are reaching a point where people are switching off from them - the attention and interest is waning - it's the same old negative stuff - I think that's why they could do with a really good PR strategy really soon. Maybe Netflix shows will come through for them - though Polo could easily attract animal rights groups ire.

I don't know anyone clamouring for Harry to come back and given their own behavior and words I think there's a lot of sympathy for RF dealing with them.

lol another bunch of fairytales on their way- preconceived bull shit to try and get their faces in front of as many people they can! Sad thing is they most are watching to take the piss out of their nonsense they spout

I think this is where a "part-time working royal" role could be useful. I think the decision that Harry and Megan can't be half in half out makes this unlikely, but I think it could be a useful way of keeping the firm reasonably streamlined.

They could keep the number of full-time working royals pretty small, mainly restricted to the direct line and supplement with part-time royals as appropriate. Meaning they could make use of popular family members or ones with a suitable profile for a specific role without being committed to supporting them long term when they might be a bit irrelevant, or unpopular or when younger members of the direct line start taking on duties.

It would also give the firm a bit more control over how the cousins use their family connections and titles.

I don't think so.

Look at all the European royal families. None of them have nieces of the monarch in taxpayer funded 'working royal' roles. Yes, I know Britain is much bigger than the other European monarchies, and for the moment at least, there are 15 overseas realms too. But broadening the slate of working royals to include those outside the direct line is not the direction of travel which Charles wants to move in.

At the end of the day, the monarchy is about the monarch. There's not actually a need for random family members to go round shaking hands and opening youth centres. Besides, I agree that the York sisters probably don't want to be working royals. I wouldn't if I was them. As things are, they get to benefit from their connections and attend the big family events, but without the responsibilities and restrictions of being taxpayer funded civil servants. Why mess with a good thing?

Yes the refusal for half in half out for H&M means they now can’t offer it (officially!) for the Yorks or Zara. Also means because money is the main way the monarch has control over younger generations in the family, they can complain about eg Zara or Peter using their royal connections for financial gain, but have very little way to stop them /punish them.

(really Charles has got lucky both York girls have married well and don’t need to use their connections to fund their families.)

I think there is potential to make this work.

But it would be difficult to make the argument that William and Kate are "full time". And that isn't just an illness thing or a children thing, they have been part time throughout

I don't see any evidence that anyone wants Harry and Meghan back as working royals, even part time.

If anyone has evidence please post it.

Well exactly. I agree there is no need for all this pointless opening of things and shaking hands anyway. If the monarch and his first born child and family do those things, it’s enough. It’s all completely unnecessary anyway.

If I’m honest, and I don’t dislike either of them and think Meghan got a very rough media ride, I think the best PR advice M&H could take right now would be to go completely quiet, stop doing tours and appearances, and just live a normal if very wealthy life. Ideally permanently. They will both be happier, and the tabloids will lose interest after a while.

It did seem like that was their plan on Vancouver Island for a while, I don’t know what made them start doing interviews again (beyond cashflow). They do need security, there are enough nutters in the world that they are at risk, but probably no more than George Clooney or Angelina Jolie.

They did go quiet for about 3 months earlier in the year it didn't stop the media posting articles...albeit regurgitating old stuff as they had no new material and it didn't stop people still starting threads on here to yet again complain and bitch about them. So they may aswell just get on with their lives however they see fit.

I know, I just think they need to do it for longer and not get goaded into responding 🤷‍♀️

There was a short window where Harry and Meghan could have come back and rejoined the royal family in a working role. That ended the second they did the Oprah interview. Then they nailed the window shut and stuck an iron shutter on it with the Netflix documentary and the publishing of Spare.

And we are not even taking into account any behind closed doors shenanigans that went down.

They have shown they have no loyalty and no discretion.

Two qualities which are essential if you want to be part of a team as public facing as the royal family.

Even if they were still liked and popular with the public, even if they were the MOST popular in opinion polls they couldn't be reintroduced into a formal role.

And whatever they may have 'seemed' pre 2020, the majority of the public are not seeing that now. They are only just more popular than Andrew.

However... as this about PR which concerns more reputation than role, I do think there is a way for them to rehabilitate their reputations in the long run

I do think you need to give it at least double the time it took to ruin your reputation to repair it though - and that's assuming you are doing or not doing what it takes during that time.

So if we say the Oprah interview was 2021 - then they should give it six years - work at something substantial during that time and then in 2030 I bet lots of people would be up for a 'redemption arc' type story. Lots of Mea Culpa and we've had time to reflect etc etc. At that point the RF would look a bit churlish not to welcome them back on a family level at least.

I feel I need to update my advice for Wills and Kate - don't make 'private' donations to a food bank which 'accidentally' get publicized to make you look caring

It doesn't, it just makes it clear that the change from behind your sofa would feed a whole town's food bank users.

I bet lots of people would be up for a 'redemption arc' type story. Lots of Mea Culpa and we've had time to reflect etc etc.

MM is not capable of any such action. Her MO in every chapter of her life is scorched earth and never looking back.

PH on the other hand probably assumes he can swagger back any day of the week but he is stuck in and hiding behind some smoke and mirrors nonsense concerning security for his wife who is never going to set foot in the UK ever again.

I think PH will do solo roles under KC once he separates from MM. But I cant see PW entertaining anything if it were his decision.

I think the half in / half out could work, if the half out was something like working in medicine or architecture, for example, having a business which doesn't cross over with their Royal duties, a business which no one could ever accuse them of benefiting from hanging on to the coat tails of the British RF..

Prince Carl of Sweden, studied graphic design and runs a graphic design studio, no mention of his Prince title, while I am sure he gets plenty of profile because of his Royalty, he doesn't publicly use his title or his Royal contacts to publicise his business. One of the Dutch Royal Family is a commercial pilot who often flies passenger flights for KLM.

The Sussexs' 'half out', is a totally different animal, and was always designed to be carried by Harrys' British Royal family connection. Their business name, the original plan to use Royal in the name,, the titles, the logos. It was never about making a true career outside of the Royal family and going it on their own, even now, despite all they have said about despising Britain and the British Royal family, they continue to trade on both.

I guess it was the first glimpse for many, and proof for others, of how grasping, incompetent, disingenuous and superficial they are, they have continued to drive that message home, along with being horrible and bullying bosses.

One of the Dutch Royal Family is a commercial pilot who often flies passenger flights for KLM.

Yes, King Willem-Alexander himself, to keep up his commercial license.

That's really rather cool.

Atlantic World College ? That’s an excellent idea actually.

Atlantic World College is an International Baccalaureate curriculum, I don't think it would look good for the future King of Great Britain to forego a British education.

One of the other unique things about United Wold College is when you apply, you don't get to choose your school location, you can give a preference but there is no guarantee. There are 18 UWC schools around the world and you could end up in any one of them, the son of a French friend of ours ended up at a UWC school in India Although, possibly there would be exceptions made for some Royal children.

Anyway, the British curriculum is held in very high regards around the world, most British expats I know prefer to send their kids to a British curriculum school, a lot of our expat friends either sent their kids to UK boarding schools or the families returned home to the UK for the final few years of schooling.

This isn’t a unique or new idea about drawing up a carefully and legally-agreed allowing of the Sussexes back in with a half in half out deal. It’s what they tried to start in talks with the Queen in the far off days of ‘stepping back’. I would imagine it being like making an amicable divorce agreement. but it could also serve as a blueprint for bringing in and limiting the role of other family members too.

As PP are saying Harry and Meghan and their kids partially back in feels like the future. It’s the way to also make more use of people like Zara if they want that. Importantly it allows some levers to be legally woven in to stop family members trading off the royals in future in ways or sharing photos or info that could damage the perception of the monarchy. While saying anything illegal must be reported. A legal job contract for the royal job, basically. A job only open to those in the bloodline. So also, not a standard job by any legal definition.

Maybe Charles won’t grasp the nettle and risk starting it off because he’s too old and ill, and doesn’t want to stir the hornets nest between his kids. I do have sympathy with that. But also not doing it is as I have said going to make life really hard for William and Kate in future once Charles’ generation retire (Kate who I suspect is seriously ill). That then puts a massive weight on Will and his three kids to be really on board being obedient heirs to the throne. Otherwise that’s literally it for the whole concept of UK monarchy.

If Harry’s family don’t want it then I don’t think people would want Andrew or Beatrice or her kids or Eugenie or her kids to be on the throne with Andrew’s awful alleged crimes. The York girls and their kids are not in any way complicit with what their dad has allegedly done of course.

But I don’t think as a society in the UK we are in any way mature enough for the national discussion around sexual violence that we would need to have to reconcile with the line of Prince Andrew ascending to the throne. For example of the kind of national reflection that is necessarily going on in France at the moment. This is after the horrific organised mass rape by local men and drugging case against the husband of Gisele Pelicot, after the bravery of Ms Pelicot waiving her anonymity.
(BBC Women moved by defiant Gisèle Pelicot in France mass rape trial
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvg5g24rr6lo )

Monarchy needs the people to want or at least tacitly consent to having their monarch in place to an extent. Just raking back through the line of blood succession to a load of people who are not leading ‘royal’ lives doesn’t work, It turns monarchy into a pass the parcel game so it shrivels up and dies. It also gets much easier for lower ranking of more distant royal bloods to refuse the ‘honour’ the more it is offered around, as it will be an increasingly difficult poisoned chalice the further it gets down the ‘pass the parcel’ succession chain.
https://www.royal.uk/encyclopedia/succession

It would be a shame if it goes because I like the UK having a constitutional monarchy and the benefits it gives us for national occasions and national mood and tourism and its role in highlighting UK history and pageantry. It’s a direct living personified link for us into the past. It makes sense of some aspects of UK Parliament’s work. it holds our ties together with the commonwealth, which is a great asset for the UK.

Central to the Chruch of England too obviously but also a role in multi-faith engagement across all the UK faith leaderships. I like the promotion of UK charities that the RF do, and how they all promote sport as a good thing.

I think there is for some people in the UK a big interest in the royal family as an idealised family and the RF offering a reassuring concept of the monarchy holding ok tight to certain values (that we like to flatter ourselves are ‘British’ values)- but they are important ones. Like I think of the poor widowed QEII sitting alone at her husband’s funeral during Covid to observe the rules while disgusting corrupt Boris Johnson and his friends were partying illegally in Downing St the night before. All those many families separated from their dying loved ones and not able to attend in person at the funerals, were kind of summed up in that isolated image of the frisk looking Queen. That was the modern day equivalent of Buckingham palace getting bombed in the blitz in WW2 and the Queen Mother saying then she was glad they’d finally been hombed ‘because it meant they could now look the East End of London in the eye.’

QEII would obviously never countenance half in half out for the spare to the heir because she had lived through the Second World War. Her own mum as Queen said when the royal family were advised to leave the country in WW2, "The children will not leave unless I do. I shall not leave unless their father does, and the king will not leave the country in any circumstances, whatever." https://amp.theguardian.com/uk/2009/sep/13/queen-mother-biography-shawcross-luftwaffe
So in that context I could imagine that living abroad while being royal meant something entirely different to her. Like her uncle and Wallis Simpson lived, basically. Which I imagine she would have felt was shameful.

The reason QEII’s Dad and then she herself stepped in so successfully though the line of succession was was her uncle AND her dad were both plausible to the country as royals to take on the crown. It’s huge for the RF line, Harry writing himself out.

I think what we’ve seen over the past few years is a private family drama blown up on the big stage, with traumatised adults- Harry, Meghan and William and Kate- all reacting to their history and their celebrity treatment by others around them. The intrusive media and their strange daily lives and their sacrifices in an age where social media makes ordinary and celebrity lives suddenly much more visible into each other. Previous royals wouldn’t have had that. It’s a bigger family argument (which MN is full of! very common occurrence…) blown up and played out on a massive international stage because of the visibility and resources of the family line of business that all the protagonists happen to be in.

So I confidently predict some kind of negotiated partial in/out return of the Sussexes will happen at some point.
Sooner would be much better for them all rather than King/uncle William doing it later just to keep/bring Archie and Lili into the fold.‘Harry at 40’ is being discussed everywhere in the media today so that’s interesting.
And it’s interesting watching a millennia long institution being forced to examine itself and what it should be doing so fundamentally, as the UK monarchy is going to need to do in the next few years.

Bloody hell, that's some reach 😏Prince Andrew.

Weird and totally sick to minimise any discussion about what that unconscious woman suffered, by shoehorning in PA..

"So I confidently predict some kind of negotiated partial in/out return of the Sussexes will happen at some point.
Sooner would be much better for them all rather than King/uncle William doing it later just to keep/bring Archie and Lili into the fold.‘Harry at 40’ is being discussed everywhere in the media today so that’s interesting. "

I would bet my whole pension fund on this not happening 😂

Wales family, ditch the stupid 1950's clothes. Put the kids in a normal school.

Charles, get a hair cut that's not a comb over.