Is there another couple like the Sussexes Part 2

[veraswaistcoat]

With this new authentic Insta post where Meghan positions herself as a go between in securing some signed merchandise I think there's still plenty to discuss.
This is a new image. No make up. Carefully edited insta. New lips. Is this influencer territory? Mention of " my husband and l " Echoes of the Queen ?

What demographic is she chasing and why?

Is the suggestion that shes after a younger demographic - 20s? If so why - what can she monetise from them? If she is doing WLM to sell stuff from (the yet to be set up) ARO - then that does make sense - do ditsy/funky 20 somethings get swayed to part with their cash by aspiring to purchase the lifestyle trinkets of a D-list, has been cable actress? I dont think any of this generation are interested in 'royal' connections.

I don’t remember ‘The Londoner’ but ‘Zoella’ came to mind, if anyone can remember her in her heyday?

This editing is anything but seamless though, it's nearly all bloody jump cuts for no discernible reason, does my head in! 😑

No doubt it's part of the influencer language but it doesn't seem to make much sense to me in this context. Fair enough if she was reviewing a film or talking about double bass bowing technique or something, and wanted to make it a bit more exciting and keep people engaged visually. But it just reeks of insincerity when it's all about the presenter themselves, and they're supposedly behaving oh so spontaneously in such a contrived bit of video.

I was thinking the same thing - who is her target audience and what does she hope to
gain from them? This is why I am more and more persuaded that this is not a thought through strategy but merely a reaction to publicity for other members of the RF

Whatever happened to The Lomdoner? I think the comparison is very valid.

The jump cuts are deliberately and are part of the ditsy girl play book, but as a previous poster pointed out, it's an aesthetic which has lost its charm, largely because the seams show too clearly. I'd say it was last a visual in vogue in, say, 2020.

As I say, Meghan is usually about 3 - 5 years behind any given trend, going all the way back to The Tig, which in style and aesthetic was slightly behind its time. I think this outdatedness is partly a function of her age and partly reflective of the fact that she's very risk-averse in her professional choices, seemingly preferring to follow a previously successful trend than be at the cutting edge of her own.

It may also be a function of her Royal status? - in that she may be nervous of being too 'out there', but at the same time not quite brave enough to simply plough her own furrow as Kate does.

Honestly, I think her target audience is herself. She's living out a film script (or several) in her head about a girl called Meghan who is all things to all people. She can be stateswoman, business woman, human rights campaigner, boss woman feminist, earth mother, gourmet cook, florist, animal saviour etc etc. In each played out script, she saves the say, gets the guy and the audience gives her a standing ovation. Once the script is acted out, it's discarded and onto the next one, which might be a completely different character to the last. It's all a big fantasy of someone (or many ones) she isn't and doesn't have the wherewithal to be, but she gets to act out being them for about 15 minutes. She's a modern day, Walter Mitty fantasist, with the money and connections to facilitate it.

I thought it was the most embarrassing thing she’s done to date. Exposing her as not having clue what to do in the influencer world and being woefully out of date.

When she was last on Insta, Tik Tok didn’t exist. But now you have influencers who have never even needed an insta or an YouTube account. Tik Tok has shaped the way all the platforms deliver content now (YouTube introduced shorts etc). It’s also shaped the way influencers talk to their audience. Most TikTok videos are 30/40 secs long and the aim is for them to go viral. The influencer has to get the full arc of the story in such a small time frame, that the only way that this is possible, is for it to be heavily cut and spliced together. This necessity has had the result of creating a completely new style of delivery.

BUT, and this is where Meghan goes embarrassingly wrong, 20 something influencers use a very stilted deadpan expression. Why? Because they understand when you are making a short video with 15/20 cuts you have to remain in a static position for most of it and your expressions need to remain stable. Often the overlay of voice can convey excitement, sadness etc but not the actual video.
If you don’t use this approach, then you’ll tend to look utterly mad. Meghan came across as manic because she confused the personable insta reaction style videos with the Tik Tok edits. So there’s lots of facial expressions, changes in tone and cadence, hands moving all over the place. This is fine if she shot the 90sec video with minimal edits, but she didn’t, she used over 20 cuts. It’s all over the place. This confused take on what she thinks young influencers do now, is why she looks somewhat unhinged on her video.

It shows you she doesn’t know what the hell she is doing and there clearly aren’t young members in her social media team advising her. The result. You cringe when you watch a 40 something woman try and compete with 20 something influencers. Just don’t.

So she recorded and posted the video before she contacted the family? Would your first priority not be letting the family/girl know?

Yes clearly the jump cuts are deliberate, I wasn't imagining she didn't notice 😂

My point is that this kind of editing has its place and works really well if used in the right context, where the focus is on making something fun for the viewer, whether that's an unboxing or a make-up tutorial. Or when it's understood that there will be edits, because it's a shortened version of a story, like a chicken shop date or a day in the life of my cat or whatever.

But here the editorial style and the content clash horribly imo because it's all about Meghan being so excitable and spontaneous, when it's clear she has very deliberately and with zero excitement or spontaneity sat down and examined every one of those 16 cuts to make sure it's in the right place. It's one of the reasons (along with the overacting, the embroidered top, the moving of the hair and some of the things she says) why it seems so off and inauthentic I think.

I remember Zoella's advent calendar. that was hilarious

I think this is very perceptive and accurate. So is Harry a bit part player in her drama then?

not the point of the thread but i WANT a Mo Salah shirt! YNWA!😁

I wouldn’t assume that to be honest - likely the reel was only posted after the family had been told. Obviously it suggests it’s all happening right now, but that’s often not the case in reality when people are sharing content online. The editing will have taken a fair while just for starters!

I’m in my 50s. I can just about imagine myself being really excited about a package for but only for five seconds, and, importantly, only with my very close friends.

I think this squealing excitement, so close to the camera is a way IG folk try to create a pseudo intimate relationship with their followers.

Well she's always the main character! I imagine Harry is leading man in some scenarios where it's useful (eg in the role of polo socialite), male side kick in other scenarios (that bloke who trails behind her on "tour")and, in some instances, written out of the script altogether!

I'm not convinced she has a huge amount to say to him. Couples in which there's a very large differential in intelligence and life experience tend to have less in common for the long haul.

I think they trauma-bonded early on in a sort of folie a deux against the RF and the British media. Also I've always suspected an Oedipal sort of relationship and the Vanity Fair piece confirmed it. But overall Meghan's a lot smarter and more switched on than Harry. She must find his company a bit frustrating.

I half agree - she’s very personable on camera. If she’d done this kind of thing earlier - and aimed it at engagement and warmth - especially during Covid - she’d be in a much better position with her PR.

But she’s doing it now after being widely criticized for disaster tourism. She has some sort of blindness to reading the room.

Member of the British Royal Family to Instagram Desperado Faker in a few short years, her Mother must be proud.

@Serenster she said I'm off to email the mother

I got quite excited about a delivery today - some binding for a blanket I am making. I even went as far as remarking to the dog "it's arrived at last".

Meghan isn’t cool enough for the younger demographic. They aren’t interested.

@Baital Did the dog share your excitement? 🤣

Two completely unrelated points:

I don't think she wants to be admired as much as she wants to be envied. The kind of person who has friends who say she changes the very molecules in the air around her by her presence (Abigail Spencer, only a tiny bit paraphrased - I'm assuming she wasn't high or drunk when she said this!), is the kind of person whose friendships are cliquey, conspiratorial, transactional, clubby, fabulous, extra, competitive, highly hypocritical and disposable when no longer able to support the mirage. Anyone who's attended a cliquey girls' private school recognises the type at 20 paces. That kind of girl was one who (ime) needed to be envied to feel like she mattered/existed. And that was because (ime) her home life was a sorry, hollow life of absent parents or arguing parents or self-absorbed parents or unhapppily divorced parents. Sound familiar? Obviously these girls grow into women, who mature and soften and acquire wisdom and experience, but some of the arrested development you see with Meghan totally chimes with an MO that is rooted in this sort of dynamic and which doesn't move on.

Secondly, keeping their children private has been the one thing that I've admired this couple for, and a bar below which I hope they won't descend, especially after all the griping Harry has indulged in. If they take them to Invictus, it's show over. Nobody, literally nobody in the world they've chosen to inhabit and make a living in, does that - the publicity is just too damaging for small children (as Harry knows and as William and Catherine have managed seemingly well thus far).

But we don't know what the time lag was between filming and posting - time to let the family know probably?