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The royal family

As ever#4 - As usual

1000 replies

Words · 27/02/2025 14:52

New thread!

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22
BasiliskStare · 01/03/2025 11:25

IdaGlossop · 01/03/2025 11:18

I'm getting more and more convinced that American Riveriera Orchard has sold its mailing list. To add to the numerous emails I have had from Porsche trying to sell me US$250,000 cars, this morning I've had one from California-based social platform Discord, which apparently I've joined. What I hadn't realised until this morning is that the Porsche concession offering me deals is based in guess where? California. My email address is unusual, not publicly available, and I receive no other emails from the States.

@IdaGlossop - In the short term can you unsubscribe from the Porsche / Discord ones . Although perhaps better to save as evidence until you get this sorted out. It's poor though.

Stickystickysticky · 01/03/2025 11:31

@IdaGlossop I started off a bit miffed about the email stuff but now I'm really angry, they're wafting about playing perfect hostess and preaching to anyone who will listen a load of claptrap all the while not giving a shit about the mess they've created.

IdaGlossop · 01/03/2025 11:31

BasiliskStare · 01/03/2025 11:25

@IdaGlossop - In the short term can you unsubscribe from the Porsche / Discord ones . Although perhaps better to save as evidence until you get this sorted out. It's poor though.

Neither has an 'unsubscribe' feature. It's no big deal receiving them, just adding to the junk. It is poor, and possibly illegal.

Mylovelygreendress · 01/03/2025 11:35

NautilusLionfish · 01/03/2025 10:31

I think so. And is quite clever to have all those merch. They are fair fast moving products. You can sell small things and make a profit on each. Even if someone buts a lemon juicer only, another will buy a wooden spoon while hard core fans will buy more. So good strategy. This may be what breaks them into the ultra millionaires with a steady income stream (soon after they left we were told they could be worth billions in months. Hasn't worked out yet but they have that $100 million and more to come). They are a very lucky happy couple even though they don't always feel themselves lucky.

Ultra millionaires ? Really ?

jeffgoldblum · 01/03/2025 11:40

@Spectre8 I'm going to break my usual rule of not engaging with you to reply once to your completely odd and personal attack over a nothing post !
Searching for something to have a go at me for were you?

My garden is in fact home to hundreds of bees and butterflies! , I have a wildflower meadow with flowers tailored to those particularly and also have bee hotels in my Garden!
So be careful of trying to virtue signal to people you don't know, you sound stupid.

Also my time is limited due to having two autistic children, one of whom I'm the main carer for! How do you spend your time eh?
🙄

MissFenellaPrism · 01/03/2025 11:44

NautilusLionfish · 01/03/2025 10:31

I think so. And is quite clever to have all those merch. They are fair fast moving products. You can sell small things and make a profit on each. Even if someone buts a lemon juicer only, another will buy a wooden spoon while hard core fans will buy more. So good strategy. This may be what breaks them into the ultra millionaires with a steady income stream (soon after they left we were told they could be worth billions in months. Hasn't worked out yet but they have that $100 million and more to come). They are a very lucky happy couple even though they don't always feel themselves lucky.

Ultra millionaires? She's not in the league of Gwyneth Paltrow or Nigella Lawson. She's not that popular or talented. She's someone of limited skills who is merching based on her and her husband's title.
It's hardly the raw material for becoming an "ultra millionaire".

ERthree · 01/03/2025 11:47

NautilusLionfish · 01/03/2025 10:31

I think so. And is quite clever to have all those merch. They are fair fast moving products. You can sell small things and make a profit on each. Even if someone buts a lemon juicer only, another will buy a wooden spoon while hard core fans will buy more. So good strategy. This may be what breaks them into the ultra millionaires with a steady income stream (soon after they left we were told they could be worth billions in months. Hasn't worked out yet but they have that $100 million and more to come). They are a very lucky happy couple even though they don't always feel themselves lucky.

I really don't understand why anyone would buy anything from a range being flogged by a lying, bullying drug lover. Parting with hard earned cash to fill her bank account is pure madness. If friends or family gave me something from this range i would be insulted, i would see it as though they didn't think enough of me to buy me something nice. Anything form her range would only be bought for people you don't like. The ultimate two fingers to you present.

MissFenellaPrism · 01/03/2025 11:48

ERthree · 01/03/2025 11:47

I really don't understand why anyone would buy anything from a range being flogged by a lying, bullying drug lover. Parting with hard earned cash to fill her bank account is pure madness. If friends or family gave me something from this range i would be insulted, i would see it as though they didn't think enough of me to buy me something nice. Anything form her range would only be bought for people you don't like. The ultimate two fingers to you present.

I think that's a good point. As a brand, neither of them are likable in the least, never mind all the other stuff.

Spectre8 · 01/03/2025 11:51

jeffgoldblum · 01/03/2025 11:40

@Spectre8 I'm going to break my usual rule of not engaging with you to reply once to your completely odd and personal attack over a nothing post !
Searching for something to have a go at me for were you?

My garden is in fact home to hundreds of bees and butterflies! , I have a wildflower meadow with flowers tailored to those particularly and also have bee hotels in my Garden!
So be careful of trying to virtue signal to people you don't know, you sound stupid.

Also my time is limited due to having two autistic children, one of whom I'm the main carer for! How do you spend your time eh?
🙄

Well why would you be criticising them for having bee hives then?

I asked you what are you doing yourself? Since you seem to take issue with themm doing something good. That isnt a personal attack, its a question. What part of that question is a personal attack?

InishBiggle · 01/03/2025 11:52

I think that WLM is just fulfilling her NF obligtions which she has been paid for.

I think As Ever is a separate commericial venture that she doesnt have investors for and they will not invest their own funds into this cash, logistics, skills and strategy intense industry sector.

NF will likely sell a few pots of jam in their two stores but there is no way a hugley complex, labour intensive, cash draining online retail emporium is being set up in the background - otherwise we would have heard of of the key sr team being appointed. Its not happening because they have zero investors and are not prepared to put their money where their mouth is. The only scale I can see it operating is FB marketplace or Etsy.

CathyorClaire · 01/03/2025 11:53

Quite an amusing puff piece on Harold's yapping from the ever so busy Office Of The Duke and Duchess of Sussex:

https://sussex.com/upfront-summit-2025/

Are the balls in the background some kind of subliminal message do we think?

MargaretThursday · 01/03/2025 11:55

Even if someone buts a lemon juicer only, another will buy a wooden spoon while hard core fans will buy more. So good strategy. This may be what breaks them into the ultra millionaires with a steady income stream

How much profit is there to be made from wooden spoons? Or lemon juicers?
Let's say she sells really upmarket ones for $20 and makes 50% mark up on each. She needs to sell 100k of those to get a million dollars.
But even if she does, then she's got to persuade them to keep buying wooden spoons and lemon juicers every month to keep it going.
I own a lemon juicer (it came from my granny, so is probably 60-70 years old and still going strong) and about 6 wooden spoons that were wedding presents nearly 30 years ago.

Having had a friend who did quite well at Pampered Chef, I don't think this sort of thing is easy to pull off a profit, let alone become a millionaire.

MissFenellaPrism · 01/03/2025 11:56

Spectre8 · 01/03/2025 11:51

Well why would you be criticising them for having bee hives then?

I asked you what are you doing yourself? Since you seem to take issue with themm doing something good. That isnt a personal attack, its a question. What part of that question is a personal attack?

She's not "attacking" them! She's not saying they don't do good. Every one of us does good in our daily lives unless we're complete sociopaths. I don't know why there are so many excuses for Meghan.

LaBarruci · 01/03/2025 11:57

I confess I've only really been invested in this couple since stumbling across these great threads, and haven't had the time to do much digging, but after reading a post about H&M's visit to California fire-affected regions and wondering why the Archewell Foundation wasn't mobilised to help, or why some donation wasn't forthcoming from that source, I went online again to the couple's various sites to see what I could find concerning what - exactly - the Foundation is up re actually fulfilling these grandiose aims of "changing the world, one step at a time" or whatever. I don't know if this isn't telling PP what they already know already, but here goes:

If you google "Sussex Royal" this will take you to sussexroyal.com. Then you click on the link which will take you to the page entitled "The Office of Prince Harry and Meghan (The Duke and Duchess of Sussex)". Scroll down to the very small link "Learn More" at the bottom, and that will take you to a page featuring two further links, one to The Archewell Foundation and Archewell Productions.

I chose Archewell Productions, which took me to a page with nothing on it apart from the slogan "Show Up, Do Good", but if you then go to "Programs" and click on that, there are two productions featured: one, "The Archewell Foundation Parents Network" and, secondly, "The Welcome Project". I clicked on the first, which took me to some brief info and a lot of large photos, then clicked on "Join the Network," which took me to another page entitled "Join the Network", then on to another page telling you to "Join the Parents' Network" (God, this is useless) which, finally, gives you, the user, the option of filling in your details and submitting them for moderation, after which you will finally get to join this Network: how much and what sort of information it communicates to its members I have no idea.

The other, The Welcome Project, does, from memory: "Address the social isolation of recently resettled women around the world and building more inclusive and settled communities", with 11 active Welcome projects across the USA. The "About and "Updates" will give you a list of various summits, reports on these 11 projects, updates about how they are getting on.

So that was Archewell Productions. Now for the Archewell Foundation, which we are given to understand is a separate entity from Archewell Productions. Er. I click on the heading "Archewell Foundation". No movement on the page: somehow it has managed to be the same page, with, again, just the one slogan: "Show Up, Do Good" on it. Scroll down, past a series of very large animated photographs (this is the most appalling design imaginable, IMO) and, finally, "Our Impact". Ah ha! Finally! Facts! Hard information! And what "Our Impact" is is the following:

300+ women participating in the Welcome Project.

2,000 youth in Nigeria now have access to an adaptive sports court.

100k girls will receive digital wellness programming.

We have reports, too:

Impact Reports dating year by year for 2020.
Form 990 Reports dating year by year from 2021.
Insight Reports dating year by year from 2023.

To sum up: I didn't go into all of it, but it seems that what the role of the Archewell Foundation amounts to is working with, and coordinating, a loose federation of some 30 or 40, possibly more, community groups, activist associations, and small NGOs across the USA, also located in Ghana, Colombia, and Nigeria, which makes H&M's visits there comprehensible. This federation is broadly linked with themes such as digital wellness and combating harm caused by social media, disadvantaged women, youth development.

Some of the reports above are also in video format: you will also find them on YouTube. You will also, I'm afraid, find another news item entitled: "Meghan and Harry Try to Save Face after Archewell Donations Plummet" with the following nugget:

"Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's Archewell Foundation has experienced a significant decline in donations in 2022, with only two individuals contributing a total of $1m. This marks a staggering decrease of $11m compared to the previous year, when the foundation received over $13m from multiple donors. The drop in donations is seen as a reflection of the couple's decreasing popularity and the public's perception of their charitable endeavours".

So why do they not appeal via the website for individual donations, as is the usual practice with any NGO or charity, and why isn't there any evidence of the usual quid pro quo with corporate and state sponsors, publishing their names and logos in a prominent position right on the front page of the site?

As for "public perception of their charitable endeavours": the public doesn't have ANY perception of their charitable endeavours, in no small measure due to this bloody awful web design and presentation, and the couple's utterly cack handed, self-defeating and counterproductive approach, not only to anything transmitted via electronic media, but all broadcasting and print media in general, and that very much includes their broadcasted speeches and interviews, such as the one where they were talking about youth suicides, managing in the process to upset a bereaved couple and thoroughly alienate the interviewer through some trifling slight perceived by Meghan: there would be no use in asking the impossible, just to keep their own egos, personal concerns and family life out of it, and focus on the question in hand - such as, for example, providing some hard information as to the means by which parents watching could join the Parents Network; and cut the soundbites and other waffle.

RecoIIectionsMayVary · 01/03/2025 11:57

The ultimate two fingers to you present.

😂 I'm going to remember this

MissFenellaPrism · 01/03/2025 12:03

Thanks for that, @LaBarruci very comprehensive.

BemusedAmerican · 01/03/2025 12:05

@LaBarruci I would be careful entering your email into these site. You could end up with lots of junk mail. Nice research job on just the site.

BemusedAmerican · 01/03/2025 12:07

BTW, a nice example of royal soft power used for good:

https://people.com/prince-william-continues-mission-unhoused-new-partnership-bournemouth-11688211

CathyorClaire · 01/03/2025 12:11

BemusedAmerican · 01/03/2025 12:05

@LaBarruci I would be careful entering your email into these site. You could end up with lots of junk mail. Nice research job on just the site.

Also worth remembering any content submitted to Archewell becomes the property of Archewell to use as it (i.e.Henry and Rachel) deems fit in perpetuity.

No idea if that includes email addresses too but it wouldn't surprise me to find out it did.

MissFenellaPrism · 01/03/2025 12:14

I wouldn't touch anything of theirs! Good advice about the emails.

MrsLeonFarrell · 01/03/2025 12:17

Invictus and Scotties Little Soldiers both have Harry showing up and doing good. The good is raising the profile through his presence and hopefully attracting support for the people doing the actual work. Both follow a very royal model as far as Harry is concerned, which isn't surprising as he became attached to both whilst he was still a working royal. It still sort of works.

The problem with his new celebrity life is that showing up doesn't really accomplish that much good. He is only one celebrity among millions. Apart from tabloid articles which benefit the papers more than the charities, I don't see any serious engagement or spotlight being shone to produce financial support in any other area. .

The Prince and Princess of Wales visited people whose homes had been flooded out this week. They waited until things were settled so they didn't disrupt anything and they were there representing the country to show house owners they weren't forgotten. Take away the Royal context and that visit is pointless. If you aren't part of the establishment, I say that because politicians can do similar things in this context, you are just in the way having your photo taken and raising your own profile.

Harry still hasn't worked out that without the status that comes with representing a country he offers very little by just turning up. Turning up on its own doesn't equate to doing good.

BemusedAmerican · 01/03/2025 12:17

March 4th is not only Trump's address to Congress, but the tariffs start for Canada, Mexico, and China:

https://apnews.com/article/trump-tariffs-mexico-canada-71761a2894e13a050717afda4fd8131a

I shortly expect to be paying $3 per tomato. I doubt AsEver products are made in the US, so they will be affected by the 10 percent increase to Chinese imports. No one in the US is going to have lots of extra money to spend on overpriced, unnecessary items.

RecoIIectionsMayVary · 01/03/2025 12:23

I really wish there was a shocked emoji @BemusedAmerican $3 for a tomato.

It will be interesting hearing from you and what happens on March 4th.

LaBarruci · 01/03/2025 12:28

@BemusedAmerican The As Ever site where you enter your e-mail to supposedly receive a Newsletter is a different site from the Sussex Royal mashup: it's developed by the same people, a Canadian web design studio called Article. This isn't really even a site, but just a holding page: just a page with a picture of Meghan and Lili on it informing you that a site WILL be developed in the fullness of time, in this case to market and publicise Meghan's AE products, but isn't ready yet. Nor, the way things are going, will it ever be. I'm afraid I did, as an experiment, enter my e-mail in response to the invitation, "Reserve Your Seat At the Table" to receive this purported Newsletter, but my e-mail has just vanished into the ether. I received no acknowledgement of my submission, nor did I have any link to click on to confirm, as is usual practice. I'm based in the UK, but thankfully haven't received any rogue e-mails or spam from the USA.

However, this holding page is another example of the most appalling, and legally questionable, bad practice. For shame, Article. I'm small fry as a developer, but I can tell you this much. No design company, not the smallest, most local, most one-person one, will tolerate the (frequent) requests from clients to just create a holding page until they see fit to dream up some content, stating something like "This page is under development, please check back later". No. The client must provide a full brief of what they want in the way of design related to the content, with examples from other similar sites, and the content sufficient to create a meaningful, fully functioning page. The AE "site" is even worse, in that it urges people to SUBMIT THEIR DATA to something that just plain doesn't exist, and which, with no site infrastructure at all to deal with subscription, memberships and security, may carry very significant risks.

For shame, Article. For shame.

jeffgoldblum · 01/03/2025 12:29

I'm really struggling to see how my comment of " no words "
Has been spun into such a heinous criticism!

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