As Ever #2 Whatever

[PrettyFlyforaMaiTai]

I noticed the old thread is almost full so thought we could start a new one to carry on the discussion about the rebrand and merching.

Are you an ‘As Ever’ or ‘Whatever’?

link to the old thread: www.mumsnet.com/talk/the_royal_family/5277002-as-ever

Would someone please be able to share this article with us?

thespectator.com/topic/sussex-squad-comes-alexander-larman/

😂Chucking food on one's chest, Nigella style, is a running joke in our kitchen. Loved Shooting Stars! I am so happy to have been able to watch comedy when it was still funny.

Ironically, I believe Nigella had quite a cult following in the US. I remember her being name checked in programmes from the early 2000s, like West Wing, SATC and Gilmore Girls. She also was denied a visa to enter the US, I think, because she was on record as having used illegal drugs. Another irony!

Is this a surprise? No. It was obvious from the first moment. All there is is an Instagram video and a holding page for a website, both hastily flung together. No research on the brand name, no relationship between logo and namestyle, oddly adjusted photo for the website. What there is could have been created on her hasty return from Vancouver,

Just seen the Vintage Read describe the mood board as a clap back - an inverted board to silence the critics, and to make it look as though For Ever is a well thought out, long term plan. Together with this latest Page 6 news that there will be no products ready for sale "for months", I can see the whole notion of spin off products being quietly shelved.

I also think the sudden exit mid IG was for this reason.

But if this is true, then that's another layer to the shambles. Even if the lifestyle show gets good viewing figures, it will be history within a month. That's how it is with NF shows. It's always about the next thing.

It's obvious that there are no products yet. Maybe there never will be?

I’ve tried a few times to watch some of their docu series and I have had to abandon it barely a minute in because I just can’t stomach either of them for longer, even just for the curiosity factor. I end up going ‘oh god no i just can't stand it’ and switch off. Their voices are unbearable to me.

Chucking food on one's chest, Nigella style, is a running joke in our kitchen.

Do you also pop down to raid the fridge in the middle of the night, scoffing chocolate cake in your black lace nightie?

Thing is, for all the silliness, Nigella is intelligent, funny and she knows about food. I bet she had a good laugh at the Ulrika piss take. Whereas Meghan takes herself so seriously, despite her lack of any relevant skills. She'd probably threaten to sue Ulrika!

My understanding is that Netflix are interested in series that people watch from start to finish not just one episode and quit. I can't see it being renewed and if it isn't what market will she have for her goods, assuming she ever gets some out.

This rush to release the rebrand of As Ever with nary a product ready to be sold (I'm sure we're all shocked by this development) reminds me of the way they announced their departure before they wanted to/had anything settled because it was about to hit the news.

5 years and they've learned nothing. I doubt either of them take much advice, but it seems everything is always so half cocked that you wonder why it hasn't struck them that they are living in a particularly leaky sieve.

@BunnyLake I did watch it when it first came out because I was waiting for the big reveal of what the RF did that was so awful. But of course there was nothing. I actually finished it thinking they had psychological issues. Honestly.

I just saw the mood board. O. M. G.

It actually perfectly encapsulates Meghan's professional efforts:

• 100% style over substance (she has labels for a raspberry spread, stylised writing etc, but not spread and no previous mention of spreads or proven capability in spreads). What does the entirety of the board actually say? Who knows!
• dated, old fashioned
• rushed, around the level of output you'd expect from a capable 16yo on a Saturday afternoon
• all about her: photos of her (even a photo of her taking a photo!), everything pointing towards her look/image but nothing about any achievements
• put together for a reason (to start to build a lifetsyler's narrative), transparent as glass and rendering the whole thing even more pointless
• too little, too late
• mired in legal woes
• obligatory Harry reference
• cheap and obvious materials

I don't think this couple have a team. I think it's just them, and for her work she pays ad hoc for PR work and does everything else herself. She'll have people who send her things, if there's a chance they can make money out of her, but otherwise I think it's ad hoc advice. She'll pay a stylist or PR advisor or creative or photographer for this or that event, but probably think she can do it better herself/it's not good value for money and end up culling those expenses. And it shows. Harry will be inside the invictus machine, so will benefit from that. He's also happy to be told what to do. She definitely isn't.

It's so game over for this chick. What opportunities squandered.

(Have to mention the god-awful reference to Montecito being her neighborhood. Her husband's money bought them a house there under 5 years ago. That is NOT the definition of being so deeply of a neighborhood that you appropriate its nickname for your own commercial endeavours. She's more nouveau than the most nouveau of WAGs, seriously. She really has brought new meanings to "duchess" and now Montecito!)

😂Alas, a fasting regime and penchant for warm, cotton PJs has totally put paid to any sexy nighttime cake eating in this household. I might peer up from underneath long eyelashes whilst suggestively licking a spoon if I want to scare the living daylights out of my DH.

Nigella is an absolute goddess, she's almost obscenely beautiful, which is weird when she looks the spitting image of her unattractive father. Her recipes are divine! I've alway thought she was taking the piss out of herself and thoroughly enjoying the self mockery. One of Meghan's inauthenticities is that she has no secure sense of self, and therefore can't have a sense of humour about herself.

Also, American Riviera Orchard was launched prematurely, because they'd had a communication from Richard Eden of the DM asking about the name and their intentions. If they'd just let him run whatever story he had, and launched the brand when it was ready, she might not be in the mess she's in now. They always have to be one step ahead of the press or clapping back, even when it makes them look stupid.

it feels so disjointed, it is absolute stupidity not to have the merchandise on the show. It's like having a concert and deciding to do the "I was there" overpriced T-shirts six months later. It would be different if the as ever merchandise was an organic development from the show but to have both ventures in the planning and not be able to sync them together is mind boggling

I don't think this couple have a team. I think it's just them, and for her work she pays ad hoc for PR work and does everything else herself. She'll have people who send her things, if there's a chance they can make money out of her, but otherwise I think it's ad hoc advice

I'm pretty sure it was Givemespanakopita, who clearly knows about these things, who said the PR's now being done by some start-up @Onlyonekenobe

If it's true that Meghan's only employing them on an ad hoc basis then they won't be making much out of her either, but I guess it's possible that a start-up is all she can now get

Of all the things, not having anything to purchase when you launch your brand is the strangest.

Is it financial?

Do they have to cover (half/some/all) the production costs?

Once the episodes drop what is going to drive traffic to As Ever?

Their PR is now being done by the company their former head of comms Ashley Hansen set up, apparently. What happened to WME? It's probably getting to the point when no PR consultancy will take them on. More trouble than it's worth and, as is becoming clearer by the day, they don't have a story to tell and they don't take advice.

<a class="break-all" href="https://archive.ph/2025.02.22-153143/www.dailymail.co.uk/news/royals/article-14330241/South-Park-beginning-end-Harry-Meghan-popularity-America-worldwide-privacy-tour.html?ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490&ito=social-twitter_mailonline" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://archive.ph/2025.02.22-153143/www.dailymail.co.uk/news/royals/article-14330241/South-Park-beginning-end-Harry-Meghan-popularity-America-worldwide-privacy-tour.html?ns<a class="break-all" href="https://archive.ph/2025.02.22-153143/www.dailymail.co.uk/news/royals/article-14330241/South-Park-beginning-end-Harry-Meghan-popularity-America-worldwide-privacy-tour.html?ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490&ito=social-twitter_mailonline" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">mchannel=rss&nss<a class="break-all" href="https://archive.ph/2025.02.22-153143/www.dailymail.co.uk/news/royals/article-14330241/South-Park-beginning-end-Harry-Meghan-popularity-America-worldwide-privacy-tour.html?ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490&ito=social-twitter_mailonline" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">campaign=1490&ito=social-twittermailonline

Interesting article and gives an overview of the south park episode for those of us who never watched it!

Germaine Greer said she has met Nigella several times and that she's even more obscenely beautiful in person, which is hard to imagine.

Nigella is a legend for a reason. I think the Nigella we see on TV is basically a persona, with her playing a role, so she's not bothered about any piss taking. By contrast, Meghan seems to have no core personality or sense of who she really is, so any criticism is a threat to her.

What happened to WME?

I don't know, @IdaGlossop, but back when a deeply wounding piece appeared (the Hollywood Reporter one I think) many wondered why WME hadn't exerted any influence to stop it

So if they're no longer representing H&M at least that one's explained

It's not easy, even for the best PR companies, to stop stories if they are properly sourced and fact-checked.

It's amazing she apparently didn't even Google her brand name before launching it.
And products are not that difficult to source. She could pick small independent women run ventures and endorse then and sell them under her umbrella. Lots of kudos, not too much effort.
Or just get t-shirts printed.
Or plastic tat from China.
Something!

And yes Nigella is a Goddess.

WME are a talent agency, not a PR firm. They make their money by taking a cut out of the contracts they negotiate for their clients.

I don't think they're going to use their considerable clout on behalf of a client who hasn't earned them a penny. That's if they're still repping Meghan, which I doubt.

Oh I think they both definitely have psychological
issues. Harry’s probably a bit more obvious but I wonder if Meghan’s mother not being on the scene for a number of years had a deeper impact on her than she realises. It seems something she has buried deep enough she wants no mention of it ever.

Yes, she used to work for an agency and like many employed professionals, undoubtedly thought she didn't have to be an employee when she's doing all the work and can go freelance. With someone like Harry and Meghan as key clients, not a bad idea. But she's a one-woman band, highly exposed to a tempestuous single client. All eggs in one holey basket. Meghan will be telling her what to do, not the other way round. I don't see that relationship lasting.