Awful card

[Jostuki]

Happy holiday season. 🙄

what did the nigeria and colombia trips have to do archewell?
I thought that was just random self publicity?

I noticed that about the children’s clothes too. They look like they are dressed for different seasons. Personally I find the whole running into the parental arms photo extremely odd.

The video is moe professional but still too self aggrandising.

They need to dial back the grand self promotion and instaed project a more low key modest image of themselves, it would serve them so much better.

The other thing about the Happy Holidays card is that every day is a holiday for them as they don’t work in any sense that normal people would understand. So it’s a bit ‘enjoy your time off whilst we carry on doing nothing much and living in luxury’.

Yes, looking at that video I still have very little idea of what their 'work' involves, other than a lot of performative hugging.

I think this is a strategy that all the Royals use-for any ‘public’ appearances of children, they generally dress them like 1950’s throwbacks so that they’re then less recognisable if inadvertently seen in public. You generally wouldn’t look twice at a random child in a park dressed ‘normally’ but you very definitely would if they were wearing the smocked dresses/formal suits that even the Wales kids are paraded in on formal occasions.

But the Wales children, one of whom is a future King, have a public role.

There's no reason for anyone to see Archie and Lili as their parents are private citizens. So no need for the quaint 1940s attire. And why is Archie dressed 'normally'?

There are emergency vets throughout the UK that work 365 days a year, it’s a standard service, it just costs a lot more on Christmas Day or bank holidays.

😂 offended. Glad you are able to admit you are wrong about that.

Tbf the UK doesn’t shut down due to particularly religious reasons these days at Christmas and we have many religions here too. There is no law that says businesses must shut at Christmas. It’s more of a tradition. Businesses are often shut from Christmas to New Year because it isn’t practical for them to open up for one or two day in between the two holidays. Shops are open though. And yes, vet services are available. It would be rather inhumane to make an animal have to wait for treatment because it is a holiday. In fact, in my experience, animals have a habit of doing great mischiefs to themselves at weekends and holidays when it’s most inconvenient 😆

edited because missed a word

Considerably more Americans than Britons identify as Christian.

So? Just over 60% of the US population identify as Christian. We still manage to be inclusive to the other 40% of the population who are not Christian by simply saying Happy Holidays.

In the UK, just over 40% of the population are Christian and look how many of you are upset because, gasp, someone somewhere else that doesnt affect you, said something other then Happy Christmas.

It is actually a fascinating thing to witness.

The little dog looks like there's something wrong with his spine

This what I was getting at - either they are the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and members of the RF and use "Happy Christmas" (and remembering that his father is the Supreme Governor of the church of England!!) or they are Harry and Meghan, and go all American!

What an aggressive response to a comment which wasn't even directed at you. Are you scrolling through this thread desperately looking to take offence or what?

The post to which I was actually responding said "The US does not shut down for Christmas, or at least in the metropolitan areas. Too many non-Christians." To which I pointed out that statistically, far more Americans than Britons identify as Christian. Which is a fact.

Are you going to come back at me with faux outrage and another non sequitur?

No, I am having a conversation. That is all.

WTF?

Why do you care that non-Christians, who live in a country that shuts down at the end of the year because of a Christian holiday, wish each other non-Christian greetings? Or, indeed, why decent Christians might wish non-Christians non-Christian greetings? You're not the only person living in the UK. People are allowed to talk to people other than you and your Christian brethren.

And is Christmas not a holiday? So, can you not stretch your imagination as far as "holiday includes Christmas"? How old are you? Season's Greetings cards have been around in the UK for decades. We've ALWAYS sent those out, never Merry Christmas cards.

Have to say, the irony of a Christian taking offence at being wished a happy holiday is quite something. In reality, what you really want to say is "every other religion and every atheist and agnostic person should bugger off and respect ME in my BRITISH, CHRISTIAN country because you don't count as much as I do as a superior Christian British person" 💁

I think the most interesting thing about the card for me is that it is a visual example of the confusion in their approach to post working royal life and why their attempts to create a successful brand isn't working yet - they lack any cohesive vision for the way they are presenting themselves.

Now it's possible to have many strings to one's bow and manage different roles but you can't usually throw all those things together in one brand/business/holiday card and have it look successful.

Where it goes wrong:

'From the office of" - pseudo formal role language to invoke officials in a formal role: heads of state, politicians, working royals representing heads of state.
They need to let this go - it makes them look silly - normal people with no official role don't have an 'office' issuing stuff for them. Just like it would be weird to have 'from the office of Zara Tindall' 'from the office of Princess Eugenie' 'from the office of George Clooney'

Celebrities often post social media on their holiday cards but they usually snap a picture of the actual card they are sending out to family and friends and slap a few extra holiday greetings on there. Photos are professionally taken and clear.

Speaking of Clooney - he's a celebrity who has a serious nonprofit foundation represented by him and his wife jointly. Social media posts and website posts for the foundation are slick professional and focused on the work at hand - George and Amil rarely appear front and center and they never mix in their personal or family life in this messaging so as not to detract from the core business of the foundation.

The whole card is horribly designed and the family image front and centre is far too low grade an image compared the rest of the card. And I'm astonished they used the picture of Harry with the patient after how controversial that particular visit was. If they want to position themselves as professional media and content producers they can't be letting such amateur work be their representative - especially if they know it will get picked up and talked about in the media.

They look like they are trying to constantly be official royals, celebrities, philanthropists, loved up family members, business owners and influencers all in one package - it's way too messy. If you want to protect the kids' privacy don't use their image at all in a PR stunt.

I think those are all excellent points, @wordler .
👏

@ wordler
Absolutely sums it up perfectly.

Er, they donated, er.... some drums, was it?

@wordler agreed. It's visually a bit of a confusing mess. Five of the photos are close ups but the family one is far away and looks jarring. It does all look a bit white saviour and feels exploitative.

I can live with Happy Holidays, they live in the States. 'From the office of ...' sounds way weirder.

'From the office of' is incredibly wrong. They hold no official role.
There's something not right about the picture with the children. It's blurry and some details look wrong, such as Lilibet's height relative to her older brother.

"George and Amil rarely appear front and center and they never mix in their personal or family life in this messaging so as not to detract from the core business of the foundation"

Michelle Obama spoke outdirectly after the OW interview and pointedly advised M&H to very consciously use and direct their 'light' (press attention) on to the causes otherwise it will naturally stay on you and the cause is never uplifted.

They look like they are trying to constantly be official royals, celebrities, philanthropists, loved up family members, business owners and influencers all in one package - it's way too messy.

Agree that it looks messy but many people already wear all these hats and maintain a cohesive brand - because they have a strategy around brand heirarchies. V basic marketing principles which either they fail to grasp or refuse to deploy.

It is typical private school uniform in the UK. Funnily enough the RF haters love to criticise the way the Cambridge children dress but I imagine it's ok for Lillibet.,

It's nothing like Britney's sexy over the knee socks 😂 never mind the shirt 😂