PR Disasters Part X

[AtIusvue]

For all Meg and Harry PR shenanigans

I wonder how long he will keep going - I'm pretty sure BU moved it's HQ from San Francisco to Austin, Texas.

However I guess at the moment Harry is useful as I remember reading the BU markets its coaching services to former military personnel using Harry's IG contacts.

For those asking about the Met Gala, there is a documentary done in 2015 when the theme was China Through the Looking Glass.

Edited to add: the documentary is called The First Monday in May.

I’m not a “fashionista” but it was a very interesting watch, covering how the theme was selected, curated and all the gala planning.

Lots of air time with Andrew Bolton (Met costume centre curator) and Anna Wintour.

AB develops the theme and pulls in all the exhibits and is the creative driving force behind the exhibition.

But the Gala is all about out AW. Frankly her level of oversight and management is staggering. There are scenes of her selecting everything from the cutlery and napkins, flower displays, table placement in the venue, to telling Rhianna (the star that year and giving a performance at the party) what to say when starting her set.

As for the guest list, she’s in meetings telling people how many people they are allowed to invite and then with her assistant moving the seating plans around (with names on Velcro stickers) and putting people on a “problem we expect to go away” list in
the top edge of the chart (noting scathing comments from her assistant about some A list actors not making the cut as they have done nothing noteworthy recently).

You cannot have watched this and come to any other conclusion than you only get an invite to the gala if AW wants you to have one. Doesn’t matter who you are (yep, even Beyoncé) or if your best friend is co-chair.

I’m not suggesting AW doesn’t have her price, as this year showed with the Bezos’s - make a big enough donation to the costume institute (and allegedly agree that AW will pick an appropriate outfit for you that you have the $$$ to pay for as you can’t be trusted given your fashion history to get it right yourself) and your in.

But H&M don’t have a spare £10m to buy their way in and don’t have the fashion or cultural kudos to attract an invitation in their own right.

Plus as a keen tennis fan I think AW rather values her seat in the royal box at Wimbledon each year….

Leaving behind being working royals is one thing, but I think both H&M massively underrated the impact of repeatedly trashing his family and the fact in doing so, they also severed a lot of potential connections for themselves in their new lives, from people who “forced” to pick a side by their behaviours were never going to forgo their relationships with the heirs over the spare.

Seeing Meghan standing at the communion, holding a pair of white gloves, I think she is rebranding herself as a Royal/Jackie Kennedy, going for elegance. Shame she put out the twerking video.

I have just read "America's Queen" about Jaqueline Bouvier Kennedy etc , by Sarah Bradford. She did dress beautifully , especially in the White House years. Not once did she twerk according to contemporaneous accounts . I rather think that added to her mystique 😉
😂

Exactly but that seems to their problem. They don't look at the long game. Both just too stupid. Her father although a small fish, would be familiar with how ruthless the world of celebrity is and I'm sure he would have told her

Wasn't she copying Caroline Bessette- Kennedy's style a few months ago?

Is it a new cosplay where she tries to establish a non-royal court around her? A bit like the Kennedy family and the whole Camelot thing? Or is it a "Kennedy needs better security" thing?

Who captured a photo of the communion?

It's sat like this for months. What a comedown.

I’m not sure it’s stupidity.

I think it’s arrogance and a completely distorted perception of what they have to offer beyond (what is now) a very tenuous connection to the global platform their “royal” status provided.

They both (imho) felt/feel that their cultural capital (and ability to monetise that) is self generated when it was always powered by their proximity to the source.

They pulled their own plug and remain baffled as to why their lights have gone out.

So Meghan goes on a solo weekend trip to Chicago while Harry gets himself papped in LA by Backgrid "lunching with friends" at Nobu 1½ hours away from Montecito.

Seems like neither want to spend much time with the kids despite having been away so much recently

https://people.com/prince-harry-steps-out-lunch-los-angeles-days-after-king-charles-usa-visit-11967243

Looking at those photos of Harry ( courtesy of Backgrid!) I wonder if he regrets passing snide comments about William’s bald patch !?

Also, I suspect Dame Anna Wintour understands exactly which side she's picked and the value placed on her acceptance of a damehood some years is a prime example. She's now a Companion of Honour as of last year - a major honour granted to a very select few. She will never get the Waleses to attend the Met, and they never would, but she's not going to bring on the cheap California substitutes in their place. The woman has her finger on the pulse to an insane level, she understands where she needs to position herself for the long term, and it's not by aligning with the Montecito gang!

They’ve got about £5.50 compared to the actual capitalist ‘philanthropists’ they seek to LARP.

It’s embarrassing.

I listened to this while doing the ironing this afternoon. It's a bit annoyingly repetitive, but as I hadn't bothered to listen to any of Harry's speeches in Australia it told me all I needed to know. The Q&A session he was promoting Better Up. Very Badly. They really aren't getting their money's worth from him. It's not just the content (whining victimhood) he's really a terrible public speaker, fidgeting, pulling up his trousers the whole time, and frankly, saying all the wrong things!.

I think this is a really good explanation of what's gone wrong with M & H - they thought people were interested in them without realising it was their role that drew the interest, which they rather stupidly threw away.

No one would be interested in Charles and Camilla or William and Kate if they weren't royalty. Take away the positions and the Royal Family are all fairly average people in terms of intelligence, personality, looks etc (and in some cases, way below average).

Oh, and there was something he was talking about, that when you ask your colleagues how they are, you should be prepared to listen to them telling the truth - that they aren't so great actually. Who was it that complained she hadn't been asked how she was? I can't imagine where he got that idea from.

It did remind me that my sister commented re: her D-i-L's morning sickness, that she didn't seem to realise that when people asked how she was doing they didn't really want to hear the details. 😅

How odd they have both been photographed at separate events with friends. Following on from people magazine article where it was emphasised how they have a wonderful circle of close friends

It's so painful to watch. He's so dull, zero charisma and all me, me me. How on earth is he getting these gigs ??? There are plenty high profile people who could do a much better job than this

Quite.

I also think it’s impossible to over estimate AW’s influence on global fashion.

There isn’t a major fashion house in the world that’s going to sign up M as a muse/ambassador and risk the disapproval of AW.

Her recent attempt to gatecrash this world (inviting herself to the Balenciaga show, with the creative director afterwards confirming this - thus publicly distancing himself/the brand from her - pretty bad when you consider the shit that brand is in after it’s ill advised bondage teddy bear campaign featuring child models) shows a lack of insight as to who the real powerbrokers are and the lack of value (or rather detrimental value) placed on her association with high end fashion.

She thought showing up was enough - because she is who she is.

But she’s not cultivated the right connections (worse she and H have actively burned their bridges) nor does she have any tangible credibility as being a person with an aspirational style aesthetic. In short she and H don’t put the legwork into creating credibility about anything.

She’s very, very pretty and can look fabulous with the right styling - but she gets it badly wrong 99% of the time.

What she wore to the Balenciaga show was a case in point - head to toe in designer gear that was mismatched and didn’t suit her body shape - proof that it’s not just the clothes it’s how you wear them that elevates them, much like the fact that $20 flower sprinkles does not make a culinary masterpiece. You have to put the effort into learning how to bake a bloody good cake to start with.

And, in the circles in which she and Archie move, the children's parents are going to be the first consideration, not the grandparents.

H&M are now rapidly gaining the kind of reputation where any parent in their circle would be praying to the gods they believe in and the ones they don't - please don't let my kid become besties with a Sussex.

He never said that, it was the British Press.

.... other than the "alarming" baldness of William he wrote about in Spare.....

From Spare

Not much social cache if she hasn’t met her grandfather since her first birthday

What will be weird is if they meet people in their social circle that have met the RF.

With their travel schedule and outings, it’s beginning to look like the kids will barely know their parents, nevermind their grandparents.