Meghan's newsletter and the As Ever website - with products!

[LaBarruci]

As discussed here previously, I and some other posters, enticed by 'Reserve Your Seat at the Table', signed up for the newsletter on the As Ever holding page at asever.com, now with some products on it, if not the actual pricing: Raspberry Spread, Honey with Honeycomb, Flower Sprinkles, Herbal Hibiscus Tea, Herbal Peppermint Tea, Herbal Lemon Ginger Tea, Crepe Mix, Shortbread Cookies with Flower Sprinkle, all in the original ARO packaging and presentation, the little ribbon and so on. Not a mere brand - perish the thought - but a 'love language'. The newsletter finally plopped into my mailbox, containing some word salad, with a quite desperate, hysterical tone to it, it seemed to me. Just one quote is enough to get the idea:

They [who?] say you have to break a lot of eggs to make an omelette - and that is true [just two eggs would be enough, surely?] Sometimes, they fall, sometimes they crack, and sometimes you don't have enough eggs at all - no matter how many eggs you break in the process, you can still end up with pretty great omelette.

https://asever.com/

I'd like know the prices because without that I can't really judge. But I am fortunate enough that whilst not living a lavish lifestyle I am not on my uppers. So I might on occasion buy something a bit overpriced if it were better . I can't think of any brand I would buy for a big uplift unless it were very noticeably better or sometimes a present - so I have bought Fortnum's tea as a present because of nice packaging etc ( but they have been going for ages so well recognised brand.) But aside from the fact I don't have a sweet tooth so don't eat cake I did notice that Betty Crocker cake mix is £3,30 in our local Tesco corner shop. It would be interesting to see what her cake mix price is and someone do a blind tasting. I am sure some journalist will.

@BemusedAmerican - I think it was you - apologies if not but the photo someone posted on one thread of eggs at $19 actually took me aback. I can remember we had an egg shortage but they didn't go up to £15 or so. I'm really interested in who people who live in the US think these products will appeal to . But in the non-Meghan-guest-gushiest way possible - thank you for your perspective - it's really interesting to me.

Well the absurdity of postponing the show 'due to the fires' is fully clear now and nothing to do with the fires at all, she just needed the extra 2 months to quickly pull together a few prototypes to coincide with the show airing.

I wondered that however she still doesn’t have products ready to sell . ( unless something has happened overnight and I have missed it )

Who makes pancakes with just water? blergh. We use milk and maybe a bit of water - Most pancake mixes have dried milk in them, surely?

Yeah I know, my point was there's no justification for any price over a couple of quid. They're the cheapest of ingredients no matter what you use.

I think the delay was about the switch from ARO to As Ever. This series was filmed last April, shortly after the silly ARO video came out and the subsequent numbered jam jar bollocks. At the time of filming, ARO must have been the intended product line. They then realised early this year that they were never going to get it TM'd. So they switched to something MM already had in her vast TM library that more or less fit the brief. The delay allowed them to get the product mock ups done (which MM would probably have had to design, including the new logo), possibly edit out any references to ARO in the series, and have Meghan explain the situation on Instagram. I think they possibly do have a limited product run of mass produced/generic product, and are waiting to see what the reception for the programme is before committing to the costs of anything more. Maybe whip up a buying frenzy and demand for second editions by calling it a limited run?

I wonder if PH has this Talking Heads song as an earworm playing in his head?

Same as it Ever Was.....

And you may find yourself living in a shotgun shack
And you may find yourself in another part of the world
And you may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile
And you may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful wife
And you may ask yourself, "Well, how did I get here?"

Letting the days go by, let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by, water flowing underground
Into the blue again, after the money's gone
Once in a lifetime, water flowing underground

And you may ask yourself, "How do I work this?"
And you may ask yourself, "Where is that large automobile?"
And you may tell yourself, "This is not my beautiful house"
And you may tell yourself, "This is not my beautiful wife"

Letting the days go by, let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by, water flowing underground
Into the blue again, after the money's gone
Once in a lifetime, water flowing underground

Same as it ever was, same as it ever was
Same as it ever was, same as it ever was
Same as it ever was, same as it ever was
Same as it ever was, same as it ever was

Letting the days go by, let the water hold me down
Leting the days go by, water flowing underground
Into the blue again, after the money's gone
Once in a lifetime, water flowing underground

You may ask yourself, "What is that beautiful house?"
You may ask yourself, "Where does that highway go to?"
And you may ask yourself, "Am I right, am I wrong?"
And you may say to yourself, "My God, what have I done?"

I saw it as "As Severe".

God that's even worse! Cripes.

Getting huge Hygge Tygge vibes

Love that song.

It's as if it was written for Harry!

I'm no MM hater but that website is terrible. What is she thinking, selling shortbread mixes?

It's giving Z list ex TOWIE cast member gets Poundland perfume range

Still don't understand who she thinks is going to buy her stuff, beyond her established fanbase. What's special about it, other than the association with her?

And not having the products ready, and a big publicity push ready to go alongside the launch of the NF show is a big fail. All the impetus is being lost. How does she get it all so wrong?

Brilliant!🤣

It hasn’t plopped into my inbox and I signed up ages ago.

I think it’s to an American audience who I don’t know enough to comment about. I have to laugh that she chosen to make mixes for recipes which only have 3 ingredients. I am guessing they will be full of UPFs.

I’ve finally given in and watched half of the first eposide. I don’t think it’s for me. I know some of the filming with the shakey camera and poor focus was supposed to make it look like it was not a professional production, that was annoying. There was a lot that seemed unproffessional, she seemed uncomfortable in front of the camera, I suppose her previous work would have been scripted and when making the bath salts she didn’t know how much she needed for the jar so shoved some extra salt on top.

#shit shop 😉

when making the bath salts she didn’t know how much she needed for the jar so shoved some extra salt on top.

That seems amateurish odd. Usually in a show of this type all the ingredients are assembled, in correct quantities, before the presenter starts to make whatever it is.

( I'm of the generation that grew up with Valerie Singleton, we learned how to do these things properly.)

It's a nice website. I think it was designed about 12 - 18 months ago as the widescreen and simple aesthetic is very 2023. I like the photography. The font and label design of the products looks very derivative of some other luxury food brand, I can't think off hand, when I remember I will post it.

This would not have been a particularly expensive website to build and if it's Wordpress (I'm unsure, web savvier MN-ers please shout!) then it won't be particularly expensive or onerous to host and maintain.

My bench mark is Mary Berry but I was thinking with a crew of 70 surely some are home economicist (is that a thing) who have practised all the recipes/crafts and who give her a recipe before saying 10 scoops of salt or whatever.

It is odd. How could they not have rehearsed?

I am redecorating and have some painting of skirting boards to do yet today. I may put As Ever on in the background to see this train wreck for myself.

Did you check your spam/junk mail? Some people have found it there I’ve heard.

Thank you. I had a good search and it was tucked away in a “Promotions” folder I didn’t know I had.

I wish her well, I really do. But I’m not sure I could watch 8 hours of this.