Meghan’s show IS something new and different.

[AtIusvue]

So we have it wrong. THIS IS an entirely new format for a cookery/lifestyle show. Because it isn’t a cookery/lifestyle show. This is Netflix first foray into the world of informercials and they are doing it in NF style; meaning a big budget and a slight twist.

So With Love, Meghan is a 5hr advert for As ever and Meghan Sussex. But what makes it different; is it has been disguised as a lifestyle show and there’s no direct sales. It’s the soft sell…..very beige and subtle.

So every recipe and story Meghan shares, is designed around an As ever product. Even conversations with friends are designed to either sell Meghan or a product.

For example. In Ep 8, she makes shortbread with edible flowers. A packet mix of shortbread with edible flowers is now on the As ever website. Now on the show, we don’t see her open the box. But what we do see, is her giving a very quick run through of a basic dough recipe and then tell the viewer they can just use shop bought. The majority of the time isn’t spent in the baking, it’s spent on the decorating with edible flowers.
This is by design. All the baked goods she’s shows you on the programme, she says things like ‘I don’t enjoy baking’, ‘I’ve never made doughnuts before’, ‘ I only learned last week to make focaccia’ ‘I don’t like measuring’
So while viewers who are expecting to watch a cookery show, are flummoxed by someone with such little baking skills teaching us- it’s because it’s an advert and she’s selling the idea that the baking part isn’t important. So when the As ever baked goods mixes appear after the advert goes out, people will want to buy. Because they know that even Meghan doesn’t like baking. That it’s ok to skip that part, and focus on the decorating and gifting part.

This is soft selling infomercials. It’s a Netflix/QVC hybrid. She is directly selling you the idea and lifestyle, but softly selling you the products. You find out what these products are, after the show.

More examples-
Ep 1 where she makes an Epsom salt bath mix (As ever TM pending). The honey and ginger tea she shares with her friend Daniel is on the As ever website. Teapots are also intended to be sold. The raspberry jam that she uses in the cake she bakes (which again, is a very basic mix and she runs through quickly- because we know she wants to sell packets of the stuff) is now available in the website. As is the honey she used for the cake syrup.

So Ep 2, where we see Meghan make kids party bags. Included are kids gardening tools (which is under the As ever TM application) a honey stick (TM application ) and plant pots (TM application)

Everything is for sale. When in Ep. 7 Meghan puts shop bought croissants in a basket and decants jam into little ramekins, a quick look at the TM application confirms that these are all items she intends to sell under As ever.

How does the soft sell look?

Take for example the jam on the show. The label isn’t on the jar, so it’s not directly selling the brand, As ever. But it’s the same jar shape and we know that it’s raspberry because the cake is decorated with fresh raspberries on top, indicating the jam used. Or the crepe are served with the jam and fresh raspberry’s. It’s all very subtle. The raspeberry jam product then drops straight after the show.

The stories she shares are designed to sell too. For example; her memory of her gran making apple butter- she has fruit butters under her TM application.

Even conversations with friends are designed to sell not only Meghan (how wonderful she is) but they are designed to introduce products in the As ever line. So in Ep 5 we see Meghan’s friends Kelly and Abby discuss Meghans love of spicy condiments - these are under the As ever TM application. We also see Abby discuss Meghans love of flowers and how she helped her in her floral business. From the TM application, you can see it is As Ever’s intention to sell fresh flowers and plants. It’s also why we are given floral demonstrations with ‘supermarket’ flowers.

Conversations with her friend Vicky too in Ep 7, about how Meghan loves a polished skin look, while making face masks- again, we see As ever intends to sell non medicated skin products from the TM application.

The show is a practical demonstration of how to use her products, but the products are released after the advert. When you cross ref the TM application items with what was seen on screen, you see clearly that everything is designed for a sale. Crockery, candles,baskets, wrapping paper, jam etc.

Another tell that this is an infomercial hybrid, is the fact that they have said more As ever items will be released seasonally. Why? What’s seasonal about honey and ginger tea and crepe mix that it’s to come out in spring? These are store cupboard items, not seasonal products.
What they actually mean is, when a new advert comes out, new products will be introduced and added to the collection.

This is why all the press reviews for the show mean nothing. NF won’t care that’s it’s ridiculed. We have all just watched the advert they wanted us to watch. What they want is for it to translate into sales for As ever. It really doesn’t matter how much critical acclaim the show gets, as it’s just a vehicle for the products.
Additionally, we know from the TM application that As ever wants to enter the podcast world. So her new podcast will be in furtherance to the brand and selling the products. But again, it will be a soft sell, not direct.

So it IS a completely new style of cooking show. It goes beyond product placement but isn’t direct selling. I think meghan and NF think they have been very clever. At some point everyone will figure out these are just adverts and work out that every recipe, conversation and story, is linked to an item that you can buy on the As ever website straight after the show.

She’s not trying to be Martha Stewart, she wants to be the new Kathy Ireland ……Meghan Sussex. That’s why there’s been a name rebrand. It’s trying to copy the Kathys mega brand (huge in the US, unknown here) but direct selling her own products….but in a 2025 Netflix kinda way.

So the purpose of the informercial was to

1- introduce the name Meghan Sussex. That’s why they’ve included the car crash ticking off Mindy got- because at least it got her new brand name in. It’s the new Kathy Ireland.

2- To sell the new Meghan Sussex image. So throughout each episode, her friends fawn over her and tell her how amazing she is at everything- cooking, hosting, flower arrange etc.

3- To soft sell the lifestyle wirh generic, no label products first, then find out what the As ever products are after. I’m sure this is a way to get around not having to list the show as an advertisement. That’s also why the name of the show and her product line are different. So it’s not seen as traditional advertisement.

With her appearance on Drew Barrymore, she’s confirming the new brand name, confirming that she’s this super nice, working mom and that she has products to sell you.

Absolutely shameless and so underhand in my opinion……but it might work.

Yes, just say "racism", sorry - RACISM , in the hope that it will shut down any discussion about a person.
I hope that's not applied in daily life.

Yes @atlasvue you're spot on. It's an extremely elevated (see what I did there?!) version of QVC.

The NF deal means they'll take a cut of sales, possibly quite a large one, and I reckon we'll be seeing As Ever products popping up on screen in other NF productions over the next few years.

The products on the website, whilst cheap to produce, are expensively packaged and shipping etc will be expensive unless Meg/NF are investing in distribution centres (they may have a space sharing deal with other 3PLs [third party logistics warehouses]; this is something NF could broker).

But my point is her profit margins will be very low as operating costs are probably quite high against topline revenue. So, she'll have to sell a lot a lot of product to make this venture financially meaningful.

I reckon my husband will be one of those buying the products as souvenirs because he’s heard me talking about these MN threads quite a bit over the past few days! I can imagine him flying back with a little suitcase filled with (shock, horror) teabags and shortbread cookie mixes And dried flowers, thinking that I’d enjoy sharing them out with girlfriends omg.

Hence I agree with some of the comments here that the products will likely sell well regardless of manufacturer, price and quality, because there will be a not-insignificant chunk of the market made up of 1. well meaning misguided buyers who think their friends will like the items 2. curious and open-minded buyers who just want to see if the stuff is any good because Ms Sussex has been spreading raspberry spread on every single possible item coming out of the kitchen 3. buyers who want a piece of telemerchandising history the same way people might pick up a jubilee souvenir in the UK 4. buyers who’ve vaguely heard about the frenzy surrounding the show.

It’s been enjoyable reading through some really interesting and witty comments here, and I’ve learned some new things about PR, marketing and psychology. Definitely do not agree that any of this is due to racism. Way to cheapen a conversation.

I don't want to drag this too much off topic because the OP's theory about the purpose of the show is quite interesting - and possibly even a business innovation for a media company like Netflix to experiment with selling jam via a celebrity content partnership (rather than say plush toy merch linked to animated cartoon characters).

But .... it is quite hard to understand the real sense of deep seated nastiness in the discussions of Meghan (not just this thread). Background racism is one explanation. There's a lot of comments (not just here, everywhere) that seem to suggest she's uppity, doesn't know her place, is out of place, underhand (these are all things white people have historically said about black people) - and then also the opposite, that she's letting the side down by being trashy selling groceries. It's speculated that her buyers could be "misguided" and somehow acting out of false consciousness, under the influence of trickery. I appreciate no-one likes thinking they could be a racist (unless they are actually a real, declared racist!) so if it's not background racism, then what is it?
The only other thing I can think of is some deep-seated form of personal jealousy ("why should she... ??)?? Possibly to do with social class/wealth (like "how dare she marry a prince, tell the rest of us how to cook and then sell jam on the back of it, she's no better than me.") I myself wouldn't mind a nice big house in Montecito and a multi-million media deal, just for being me.
It's probably a bit of both.

There are absolutely loads of terrible TV shows and business partnership tie-ups out there - but none of them seem to run to so many media and social media column inches.

When the products are actually available I expect there will be another gold rush of cultural commentary to help sell them. See you all at the checkout 😎

@nongnangning or people are judging Meghan on what she says and how she behaves?
The UK is hardly an Aryan Supremacist community. There are successful people of all ethnic minorites, in every walk of life, including top tiers of government and the law.

Surely the entire influencer industry is based on people getting completely undeserved (in the sense of earning respect by achievements) attention?

That's what Meghan has chosen to embrace.

And people are pointing out that she hasn't done it very well.

A few quick replies:
There are successful people of all ethnic minorites, in every walk of life, including top tiers of government and the law.
It's true to say there are some. But not that many. A bit like women achieving top positions - it's happening slowly over time.
The UK is hardly an Aryan Supremacist community.
No. However, Aryan supremacism is an overt form of racism. If there could be said to be racism in the case of the reaction to Meghan it's more "background racism" IMO.
Surely the entire influencer industry is based on people getting completely undeserved (in the sense of earning respect by achievements) attention?
That's what Meghan has chosen to embrace.
And people are pointing out that she hasn't done it very well.
If the OP is right and the ultimate business aim is not to make a fascinating TV programme but to sell jam, then the proof will be in the sales of the jam, not the critical reception of the TV programme or in any perceived business "mistakes" (like the jam not being available yet).

It's based on having a naive and not very bright audience who cannot see the reality of it. Look at all these girls who pretend they are in Dubai advertising some handbag when in reality they are in their bedroom in the UK. The audience are of low level intellect , they are suckered into buying some over priced beauty box earning money for the "influencer". Meghan is no different from them in her hired venue.

@nongnangning , no.
The point is that plenty of people of colour have achieved well in the UK. To present any criticism of Meghan as RACISM (qv) is foolish and simplistic in the extreme.
Ethnic minority people with significantly less wealth, privilege and opportunity than her have had very successful careers. She's not a victim. She's a royal multimillionaire with excellent connections.
I respect people who have worked for what they have achieved.

Liars are not popular.

I have to say that I think some of the people who tout this belief do not come from the UK but are from the USA or other countries where the situation has been and is different. Of course there are issues currently with illegal immigrants in the UK as in all other European countries but the reality of the situation here is that there are many well established groups of people of a variety of cultures, nationalities, religions etc living ordinary everyday lives here. Some outsiders seem to carry this alternative fantasy in their minds. I won't deny that there were difficult times in years gone by but nothing like in eg the USA and hence why you see the ridiculous ideas sometimes spouted on here and in other SM.

Good points, @glitterturd . You're right, the history of the 2 countries is very different. There is also a tendency to apply victimhood to Meghan because of her various claims.

My God you lot are OBSESSED! Why does she live rent free inside your heads? How long did that OP take to type out?! This is like some kind of hobby in the style of mean girls playground bitching. Why does it matter so much to you? Can't you get a different hobby?

This x 100.

Claims that were mostly lies ! @DelectableMe

Boring , predictable and frankly unoriginal!
Just like Meghan.

Yes, but it made money and kept her in the headlines. Job done.

Thanks @GiveMeSpanakopita

I know you know a lot about these things, so glad you can see it too.

I don’t think it’s a bad idea or anything. I do think it will be a limited venture though.

Question: would anything make it actually okay for Meghan Markle to sell jam on TV?
For example:
Would she first have to buy a strawberry farm?
Open a bricks and mortar jam shop and serve at the counter?
Write a jam cookery book?
And then only after that would she get a TV show to promote the jam?

Or is it never okay for her to sell jam on TV?

I think it's great that she's selling jam and ready pancake mix on tv.
It's a more honest way to earn a living than just claiming all sorts of stuff about the RF on TV, magazines etc and invading people's privacy.

@jeffgoldblum

I genuinely don't understand your response. I've got no idea whether that makes me/the comments like Meghan as I have no interest in her. In the same way I couldn't give less of a shit if Stacey Solomon did a new tv show or Holly Willoughby started selling stuff.
I was curious to see how much air time this got on tv this week and clicked on this thread for insight. I'm fascinated as to why so many people are obsessed to this degree. It's so weird.

Of course she can sell.jam on TV. She already is. People are pointing that out.

It's the gap between the stated aims (elevate! Create joy!) and selling jam

Stacey S would simply announce a new TV programme, and not have all her guests tell her how amazing she is.

"thank you for loving me"
🤮 😂😂

Don't you?
Well I'm assuming that you don't realise then that you have just posted the same rubbish that has been posted a hundred times before on any thread that doesn't worship at the feet of Meghan then?