As ever#4 - As usual

[Words]

New thread!

That's better than I expected.
I think that's the most natural I've ever seen her. Or the best acting I've seen her do.

Maybe I'm going to become a Meghan Markle fan 😮😂

A slight derail. I've had a horrible few days in plumbing Hell, which I will spare everyone the details of. These threads have really cheered me up and made me laugh and for all the occasional sweeping in with cloaks flying to tell us we're all hateful wicked and mean (and sweeping out again stage left as in bad Shakespeare) I think there is more humour and intelligence than is usually found at the mo.

Thanks all.

@IdaGlossop Having been involved in web development at the time H&M originally jumped ship, I went onto their original Sussex Royal website out of curiosity at the time to see who the developer of the site was: a credible Canadian company now called Article who have done work for Diane von Furstenberg and Camila Coelho, among others.

It seems that poor old Article have had the same problems with the pair as everyone else: they list six websites connected with H&M, "The Tig", "The Duke and Duchess of Sussex", "The Archewell Foundation", "Archewell Productions", "As Ever", and, finally, "American Riveira Orchard". The sites that actually exist have minimal content, including the Sussex Royal website where Article have done their best with what little has been chucked at them, which is an "Impact Statement" of Archewell's activities from 2024: otherwise, nothing very much.

The "As Ever/American Riveira Orchard" site at present consists of just one page with the sole misleading claim of a newsletter, and so if Meghan is intending to market her products, jam, aprons, cake mixes or whatever via this site when it finally materialises, and as she will have to, she'd better get a move on. Digital sales and marketing of any kind, including newsletters of course, is a highly labour intensive, dynamic process requiring a massive amount of preparation and detailed planning in advance, and, of course, it has to be properly staffed: for example, only a small proportion of subscribers actually open newsletters, and so they have to be sent out with great frequency and updated with even greater frequency, before we even begin to get on to what is needful for the main site itself, including security and compliance to regulations: Article cannot possibly be expected to take on the actual sales and marketing of the As Ever products.

This situation with the "newsletter" which is all the As Ever page can boast at the moment, is just ludicrous: nothing could illustrate better the cluelessness of this pair and total lack of nous as to what they, or Meghan in this case, are committing themselves to.

Is that true? Does their privacy policy say anything about sharing your data with third parties?

That's appalling. Is there a US equivalent of the ICO? I'd be reporting them to that if so. The whole thing feels so amateurish, but playing fast and loose with people's data is not ok.

I'm still confused by the choice of music for the trailer and again now with this preview. "Do you believe in magic"? It's all very, well, cheesy and odd. What is she trying to convey?
I got the distinct impression the Korean chef was having a bit of a joke at her expense.

I saw the sneak peek and honestly if this is the best thing Netflix can come up with to tease the show then it's going to be even worse than I thought.

It's just boring frankly, and the interactions between Meghan and the chef are really awkward.

I agree with @elessar it’s really not ok @IdaGlossop.
This could really bite her on the bum, it’s completely illegal.

She looks so awkward a lot of the time, when she's trying to banter with the chef and when she's dancing. It makes me want to curl up with second-hand embarrassment.

I wish she would just be herself, whoever that is. Even if it's not someone very nice, that would be better than all these different 'characters' she keeps trying out. This most recent being the worst so far in its saccharine, cloying Martha Stewart-wannabe. She can't pull it off, she never can. I wonder if there is such a thing where your authentic personality is one that comes across as strongly inauthentic? I saw some commentary earlier that said she doesnt know how to act human and I think that is an accurate description.

I just don't understand who her market is? Seems a very 70's vibe to me and not in tune with today's market.
And why do a cooking show then sell (crap) cake mixes?

That’s what I thought- it’s hardly an electric interaction to release as a teaser

How does the selling stuff work? Will she have to source rolling pins or saucepans for example and have her logo printed on them or will NF do all that.

What I find a bit odd is the lack of promo beyond her instagram, like print and tv interviews and whatnot- isn’t that the sort of thing people do pretty much as standard when they’ve got a show about to launch? It all feels a bit DIY and it’s v much adding to the “who really cares” vibes. Unless she doesn’t want to do a talk show- I suspect Meghan would not be keen on a live show or one recorded in front of a live audience, with no option to go, “I didn’t like that delivery, can we start again?”

Just harking back to the Welsh Cake discussion at the back end of the last thread....

My 95 year old neighbour makes the most wonderful Welsh Cakes. Fortunately she does this frequently and is happy to share, so I get a plateful over the garden fence at least once a week.

She says it's important to plump up the dried fruit by soaking in warm water before draining and adding to the mixture. Ensures that the cakes are moist & juicy as opposed to the very dry textured shop bought ones. So that might be a useful tip for any MNers planning to make some.

Actually it’s not bad at all. If you’d watched Suits and then watched this - assuming the trailer is a fair representation - then what’s to hate or dislike about her. The chat with the chef was cute.

It’s such a shame they did the ‘burn all past bridges’ stuff and the very ill advised things like the Ulvade visit.

If they’d gone straight to happy, uplifting, just Meghan and just Harry enjoying life and sharing some stuff they are passionate about during the pandemic and onwards they would be in a totally different situation now.

Look how Archetypes promo went….The Cut interview. Once bitten, twice shy

Very interesting supplementary information. I knew about Article and, having commissioned web designers over the last 20 years, have thought how frustrating it must be for Article to be commissioned to design so many simple sites with little functionality. To manage a large-scale marketing and e-commerce site, you'd need a much more sophisticated outfit than a small Canadian studio. The AE holding page suggests that Meghan & 'team' haven't even written the brief, let alone put together a shortlist. There's zero chance of a full functioning site being ready by May.

Her dancing terribly in the kitchen wearing that ill fitting beige outfit was toe curling.

He thinking 'Those trousers? Nerh.'

Yeah, I thought the sneak peek looked and sounded way better than the trailer. Less of the saccharine crap and quite funny.

I have tried to find somewhere to report this as I've tried to unsubscribe and can't because I didn't receive a confirmation email.

Everyone was saying the cookery show would never be made or never be shown.
But here it comes.

Makes me just hedge my bets on her selling the products. Maybe she will Maybe it'll be successful.

I agree though that this relaxed chatty M is the way she should have gone initially. It might have worked then.

Now when I'm watching it I might think for a moment 'she seems ok ' then I remember all the sanctimonious victim hood and remember she's not.

But nobody is just one thing. She may be able to show her good side,because of course she has one, everyone is multifaceted 😏

@IdaGlossop Indeed. And it wouldn't have occurred to them, of course, to actually sync the launch of the website and its products with the release of "With Love, Meghan". That would have required long-term thinking, coordination, much hard graft and planning.

I agree.

OTOH the dancing bit (and the look on the guy’s face) made me cringe! She’s clearly not a natural on the dancefloor (though to be fair, the vast majority of us aren’t!)

Well, @StrawberryWasp , I hope it does work for her, maybe she'll have a following. Her other stuff hasn't gone too well and it must be frustrating. She's not without ability, so I hope she finds her groove.

Ah that's so sweet of her