PR Disasters Part X

[AtIusvue]

For all Meg and Harry PR shenanigans

@AtIusvue I've had Compartes chocolates a few times, as corporate gifts at conferences. They're nice enough as freebies. The packaging is really cheap. Flimsy plastic tray, thin cardboard box with folded over edges rather than bonded corners - maybe there are different ranges of packaging though? They chocs themselves are like the stuff you get in Business Class flights. Taste fine, just generic caramel-filled chocolate. Overly sweet for my palate. Quite forgettable (but I can take or leave even the best chocolate so I'm probably not the best judge). It's all style, no substance.

“Test and learn stage” - code for winding down.

This is such a low effort business it’s almost analog in a digital world. She can’t possibly be paying anyone to popping up a random post every so often - she must be a one man band. See more activity from the school gate MLM mumfluencers who are doing it as a side hustle to their full time job as a midwife etc

What happened to the flower collab ?

Not much social cache if she hasn’t met her grandfather since her first birthday and it’s widely reported / acknowledged that that door to the RG is slammed tight. Even worse down the line when her uncle is King and removes her titles. I can see an initial curiosity but no real ability to either social climb or be the queen bee.

No doubt died on its arse. The ‘learning’ in that ‘test and learn’ collab would be not to hitch your waggon to perishables when you have zero experience of managing such stock.

Is Harry still Chief Impact Officer (WTF?) of better up ??

Apparently so, @Starryfifty - at least he's still listed as such on their site: https://www.betterup.com/about-us/leadership-team/prince-harry-the-duke-of-sussex

I can't say I've heard much about his "work" with them though, but then most of his "work" seems to involve whining and bringing court cases, which wouldn't appeal to me personally in a husband no matter what his title was

Earlier today in the thread it was mentioned about the next thing will be seeing the kids faces.
i really think the boat has sold on this.
The two ‘big’ ones l can remeber were when Fergie and Andy sold pictures of themselves with Princess Beatrice and their ‘new house’. I bought Hello! as I wanted to see in their house. I was gutted that it was mainly pictures round the pool but some lovely ones of Bea who was a pretty little thing.
They got £250,000 for this spread which they gave nearly all of to Susan Barrantes (Fergies mum) whose husband Hector had recently died and she needed money to keep their ranch in Argentina. £250k then was a sizable wedge.
The next one was Brad and Angelina who sold the baby pictures of Shiloh which they got at least £1million for (I can’t remember exactly how much it was) which they donated to charity, They knew there was a price on the first picture so they foxed the paparazzi by selling it themselves.

If H& M had done this when Lily was a baby in Archie’s arms at their home then they could have got god knows how many millions for it,
Now however - I genuinely don’t think anybody is interested. I think their time to sell has long passed , mainly because they have made themselves so unlikeable only their die hard fans would buy anything with them in it,
We have seen so many pictures of the backs of their heads but nothing of any interest -no playing with friends, all in their back garden, Lily always barefoot with un brushed hair and Archie wearing winter clothes.
I still don’t quite get how both kids are so incredibly ginger & pale pale skinned -but maybe they don’t want too much chatter about that,
I’m not saying I believe the surrogacy stories etc but I find it incredibly odd that neither child has got a single colour characteristic from her side. Kids are usually a mix of both parents. I’ve got my dad’s eye colour, my mums skin tone and hair thickness but hair colour from dads side.

Thanks. Just read his blurb on website. Obviously not updated in a while as it mentions sentable (his photo is seriously filtered too!)

Shake hands and assume it's making a huge impact in donations for whichever cause he visits, from what I can gather.

BetterUp doesn't have the best reputation either, if you read reviews from former staff members - certainly not the sort of reputation a company talking about mental health support should have.

If H is still Chimpo for Better Up maybe he would be better off not slapping random volunteers on the arse when he is doing a faux Royal tour. I do think this should be taken up by MSM because it is pretty shocking behaviour. The video from the Lion man a pp posted ( thank you whoever it was ) , I get the YouTuber is an acquired taste but the point he made is spot on , H was in a position of power there and he abused it.

If I were Better Up ( which I think is not given a lot of commendations for those who have used it , work for them ) I would gently let him go ( apologies if I am thinking of the wrong organisation. )

I'll be very interested to see how the Sentebale case goes.

I've seen nothing about African Parks recently & H is a director I think , not just a patron so he has actual responsibilities.

It seems so obvious to me , he has been trained for nothing other than being a figurehead , ambassador etc - but he is not able to carry these roles out without the heft of the BP machine behind him. Sad for him , but just another consequence he didn't think through.

I would love someone take "the pilot's" initial dive into Invictus finances. If it' all fine , then good. The trouble is (and this is a PR disaster for H I think ) increasingly he is not seen as a credible patron or spokesperson by many people.

He was born with a platform and he has it still - as he reminds us - but Goodness me I am astonished his credibility isn't waning more publicly and faster. I know he'll bring attention to something , but he couldn't even sell out his Australian hustle.

ETA cross posted with @bluegreygreen there - I too have read Better up isn't the best advert for itself.

Both children resemble Thomas Markle in facial features even if not in colouring. No doubt in my mind about their genetic inheritance from that side. I'm just surprised the ginger gene has proved so strong! No wonder my biology grade at school was middling. Though Archie's hair now looks to me like it's darkening.

Agree BTW that they've missed the boat with getting the best deal for photos which would have been Lili as a baby, probably held by big brother Archie. Primary school aged kids can be gorgeous and immensely charming but the window is narrowing, for sure.

I’ve certainly met PTA people who try to use it as a vehicle to flog their MLM tat. Don’t give her ideas.

The desperation is getting very real.

They’d have to rename it a PITA.

@Indianrollerbird😂👏

And this is why we need the laugh emoji back 😂

That’s exactly what it looked like when Serena posted a video of a gifted box of As ever chocs. Filmy box that had ripped and cheap plastic inserts to hold the chocolate. Some chocs were damaged too, which at $5.80 each, is a bit shocking.

TBF he's following the well-worn family line.

One of the greatest problems is that Meghan has no sticking power - if the As Ever products are not an initial success she just moves on to something else and never mentions it again like the $300 jam and flower boxes ... did anyone actually buy them?

It seems the same with her friends - as soon as they are not useful to her she just moves on. How many of the "baby shower" friends are still in contact with her? WLM showed how far she had dropped in star power - when you are padding out cooking show episodes cooking with your hairdresser you know it's almost over. The only "name" was Mindy Kayling (who seemed like she regretted it) and she was snapped at in her episode when Meghan declared "I'm Sussex now".

The other question is - what is happening with "Archewell Philanthropies" and ... have they even mentioned this reorganized charitable venture in 2026? Or is it another project never to be spoken of again? What happened to the $8+ millions from the old foundation?

She was obnoxious to mindy K. Really don't know what she was thinking of tbh. Mindy is hugely talented and successful. Her work on the US office is phenomenal. She looked mortified throughout

He's still there, yes.

No indication as to whether he still draws the $1m p.a. salary he was said to be commanding.

Not that it would touch the side of his reported expenses.

You make a very good point here. There will of course still be interest but yes it has been tainted by the parents' behaviour. I'm sure people would have been happy to see images of these little tots but after all the teasing shots people are more likely to see them as just having been used by their parents - a quick look, a comment maybe about whose nose, skin colour or hair but that's it.

Still , handy salary to have for a job which you seem to have no discernible qualifications for and seem to have spent no time on. Where do I sign up ?