Confessions of a Female Flounder part 2

[foreverblowingbubbless]

I've embarrassed for Meghan saying that her arranging takeaway food on a plate is the same thing as what Figs Heather Hasson has done 😬

Just to give a bit of background to what is happening in the US food market:

1. The new Health Secretary (UK equivalent is Minister of Health) has gone on the warpath against additives common in ultra processed foods aka UPFs like cereals (colors) and pancake mix (preservatives) meaning food manufacturers need time to reformulate recipes to remove ingredients which are on the list to be banned.

2. Tariffs (on again and off again) have impacted supply chain of UPFs as these tend to be low end of the market with thin margins so even a 10% increase in tariffs can wipe out the profit margin of the UPF.

Even the most organised, large food US companies are struggling with the current US administration's chaotic approach to trade. I cannot see how a disorganised start-up with more communications personnel than operations personnel can realistically bring any product to market.

Kennedy announces ban on artificial dyes in food and drinks

Oh, and she's a good mum because Archie woke her up at 2am excited because the tooth fairy had been and she cuddled him all night even though she had lots of meetings in the morning.

Why would you do that? What's wrong with 'That's nice darling. Off back to bed now. Night night.'

In business terms, “verticals” are the business lines that fall underneath your overall brand (which is the umbrella, if you like), and then you have your horizontal functions which support across all the vertical businesses.

To take Meghan’s business as an hypothetical example, her umbrella will be the brand “As Ever”. Underneath that she might have different verticals being, say, Food, Homewear, Health Supplements and Fashion (I’m guessing that she might want to follow a Goop-like plan, obviously 😀 ).

Each of those verticals will have different products, suppliers, different advertising campaigns, and likely different target customers etc. Usually they would be supported by shared horizontal functions like HR, Finance, FDA compliance, legal etc.

So what she is basically saying here (I think) is that her various hypothetical different business lines will all be inspired by her love of home and garden. But I think Meghan thinks using jargon makes her sound more professional?

Thanks for the explanation @Serenster . I do agree with But I think Meghan thinks using jargon makes her sound more professional? Maybe it would have been useful if she'd explained it in the way you have. I can't see her target audience being already successful female (or male) founders who would automatically know what she means (if indeed she understands it fully herself) but I think Meghan looking clever overrides any Reithian need to inform.

Makes me think of an extremely large woman I saw trip trapping around a pool recently telling everyone about her " tiny princess feet" 😂. People's faces 😂😂

Is this Meghan now reASSessing similar to her change of name from ARO? Can she not make her mind up? Can she follow anything through? Honestly can she not see how much of a dick she looks?

I was positive at the start and I wanted this to work for her because I think everyone needs to feel successful. But now, the more she talks the more my eyes roll back into my head. Such elevated language to flog a packet mix and runny jam.

I had low expectations and M exceeded these!

We other 49 states side-eye California and even in Cali, most of the state side-eyes the Hollywood portion as truly loony "woo-woo" types who are out of touch with reality.

M is a typical D-lister who has exposure based on who she married. Just a vapid, money grasping, mean-girl, vain and shallow person, of which there is an assembly-line in Cali. Blake Lively, Chrissy Teigen, Hillaria Baldwin, Amber Heard...these ladies are peas from the same pod as M.

But the greater M's exposure the greater the realisation of the world that there is no "there" there. And there never was.

I think the further she gets into this glam tradwife/Mom/faffing around with sprinkles groove the harder it will be for her to try anything else or indeed be taken in any way seriously whatever she does.

It doesn't suit her, she's not terribly good at it and I for one don't find it genuine. It feels like a pose. Eg Nigella (studio kitchen and all) comes over as loving food, able to cook and with real warmth (I've even forgiven her for one chocolate cake recipe that nearly finished my oven off) I'm sure it is not entirely "real" but sufficient numbers of people want to believe it is and are willing to suspend disbelief, because they like her.

M is a typical D-lister who has exposure based on who she married. Just a vapid, money grasping, mean-girl, vain and shallow person, of which there is an assembly-line in Cali. Blake Lively, Chrissy Teigen, Hillaria Baldwin, Amber Heard...these ladies are peas from the same pod as M.

Absolutely spot on. Chrissy Teigen a vile woman who told Courtney Stodden on Twitter who was 16 at the time to take her own life and Teigen is a guest on the next series of Meghan’s show, how does that fit in with the Parents Network eh Meghan?

Oh Jamie - no mention of your bestie Meghan??? You naughty girl! You can't even spell her name correctly on your pod blurb 😬

Gwyneth references verticals in her podcasts all the time, Goop does have verticals, clothes, food, wellness, home.

Meghan had 5 SKU's for all of 45 minutes.

I can't believe she won an award, that is shocking. Has anyone listened to any of her other podcasts? was the one with Meghan an exception in how bad she is..

Wait, wait, what's this about? Who is Courtney Stodden and who is Chrissy Teigen? I've never heard of either of them, so Teigen told Stodden to take her own life? What was this about? Unbelievable that Meghan will be welcoming her and a guest especially with the Parents Network in mind.

Chrissy Teigan is a former Deal or no Deal suitcase girl - she was on that show at the same time as MM. She married singer, John Legend and became a bit more of a household name, but then earned a rep as an internet bully.

Courtney S was at 16 a model/actress who was in a marriage with a much older actor (in his 50s). I think he was the nasty prison guard in the Green Mile. Anyway, he took some really inappropriate pictures of her and paraded her around in the media, and they appeared together in some reality TV shows. Teigan said some awful things to her online and in DMs, suggesting, amongst other things, that she unalive herself. That's where her reputation as an internet bully came from.

Teigan has also said some weird and inappropriate things about her own children online.

M has never weighed 60kg in total.

*meaning pre preg

Teigen's bullying went well beyond Stodden.

From the linked Vox article:

Teigen calling then-22-year-old Teen Mom star Farrah Abraham “a whore” who “everyone hates” in 2013; Teigen writing of then-9-year-old Quvenzhané Wallis in 2013, “i am forced to like quvenzhané wallis because she is a child right? okay fine.”

Chrissy Teigen’s fall from grace

She also bullied a designer and made him suicidal. She mocked Nikki Cox and Jay Mohr for naming their son Meredith. Chrissy hid behind her husband and is desperately trying for a comeback...desperate enough to post the jam jar (forget which number she was) and now appear on the podcast despite her extensive track record of cyberbullying.

I couldn’t agree more. This is totally totally batshit crazy.

The products sold out in 45 minutes. There can be very little to analyse from that. She talks about understanding seasonality - she can’t, because she had one drop of products that sold out very quickly. She has no idea whatsoever about seasonal demand, overall level of demand, repeat purchase demand, anything. It is utter bullshit.

There is no credible reason that they wouldn’t have restocked the initial products unless they physically can’t, for whatever reason. And no credible reason they wouldn’t plan more products to coincide with the “second season” launching later in the year.

The talk about assessing the overall business and new products maybe being announced in 2026 just smacks of catastrophic failure and yet another attempt to cover that up by pretending this is all “part of the plan”.

I can’t help but feel there’s a fascinating Netflix exposé about both Harry & Meghan to be made somewhere down the line. Underneath the PR fluff they put out, it’s clearly a shitshow behind the scenes - from bullying staff, misusing and abusing power in charity roles, the failing commercial endeavours and embarrassing missteps. We get snippets of it leaked, but if the full extent of it was exposed it would be dynamite I reckon. That’s a Netflix show about H&M that I definitely would watch!

We get snippets of it leaked, but if the full extent of it was exposed it would be dynamite I reckon. That’s a Netflix show about H&M that I definitely would watch!

I agree but so far the press et al lie inexplicably supine.

Even foreign docs (thinking of the watered down 'explosive' German attempt here) get their punches pulled.

The best expose was the French doc showing endless empty offices at Archewell but that sank without trace 😡

Has the German one aired? I don’t remember.

I think it did but so watered down and repetitive of what we already know as to be entirely ineffective 🙄

That would involve her actually knowing what the truth IS . Both of them live in fairyland.

I am in two minds here .

1 ) On the one hand no-one (except in some way Jason Knauf) has ever directly brought any allegations of bullying against H&M ( & I think he took it to BP HR - not directly against them) I may be wrong. So maybe there aren't any founded allegations to be investigated.

2. On the other hand there have been witnesses to people who work for them being very upset and whilst H&M are "saddened" by the allegations they have never actually taken any action but then I think have never had anything specific to face. I think whilst at BP & in the early days in the US their star was on the up & I think it was a Reitman employee who retracted her comments about M. because they were on the rise with all their deals and they were more important than "some employees" & I suspect they have had people sign watertight NDAs

If I were H&M would I would not like rumours or eg the VF article pointing at this behaviour still being around rather than knocking it on the head . Or is there genuinely nothing to answer. But if there is I suspect it would just take a few bricks out of the wall to make other people come forward. & even I have heard of Chrissy Teigan's reputation so you would think M would stay a mile away from her.

Now I am happy for anyone to report this as speculation. But this isn't just MN speculation ( say it to yourself in an M&S advert sort of way ) this is VF , Hollywood Reporter , Biographers , Dr Sophie Chandauka speculation.

Selling stuff for 45 minutes a couple of times a year with the rest of the time paying people to do analysis is not going to pay the pool cleaning bill, let alone turn them into billionaires.