PR Disasters chapter 12

[AtIusvue]

Meg n Harry giving us plenty to talk about as usual…..

😂. It’s a great word 😆

KP's less attractive though, it looks rather like a university building. I can understand why she would think that wouldn't be princessy enough! But BP must be the most famous of the royal residences surely, that's where they always are to address the nation... But slurping up to QEII at Windsor probably fit more into her life plan - and it certainly is a pretty impressive castle. Much more than Cinderella's! I too would be happy enough in Frogmore, but then I'd also be happy enough in Nott Cott - I suspect i maybe have slightly lower standards than MM!

I definitely think both her and H expected they would be equals with W&C. I think H has always thought that, didn't Diana encourage it? I'm sure I heard there was some notion of there being two kings - though maybe that just came from him. Or maybe the media, who at one time definitely preferred H to W. But that whole fab four thing seemed to support the idea of them all working together... Until it didn't.

She assumed maybe some animal protection gig but I disagree with her on this. He's simply too lazy and needs status / limelight

It's another example of her basic lack of empathy and humanity. 'I'm going to meet with the parents of kids who ended their own lives because of social media, so I'll just whack my own 4 year old up there on Instagram so they can all enjoy seeing me smirking in a stupid outfit

Just like when they spoke at the bereaved parents conference thing. Stood up and banged on about how amazing and wonderful their own (still alive) children were. Idiots.

Very good points @ShamedBySiri.

In a similar vein, I wanted to look up the memorial, so searched for 'lost screen memorial geneva'. The first 3 pages of results were all headlines about Meghan travelling to Geneva for the opening of the memorial.

It wasn't until I removed 'geneva' from the search that the results included the link to the memorial page.
I've just spent some time on it. It's a page where you can read the stories of the young people who died. I have read 5 or 6.
The stories are very sad, and the parents are understandably upset about the role that social media has played in their deaths.

I was left with a couple of thoughts, in addition to the sadness:

The page is simply a memorial.
There is no link or signpost to any online resource, or organisation that could help, if you are a child, or a parent of a child struggling with social media.
This feels like a wasted opportunity.

Some of these children are described as being 'addicted to social media by the age of 13'; the implication is that they were involved with social media before that age.
All the big companies have 13 as a lower age limit, some with specific defaults below 15 that require parents/guardians to change.
While recognising that there are huge issues with social media companies and their algorithms, I think there is room to consider parental responsibility too.

I'm sure I heard there was some notion of there being two kings

It must be really hard for a parent to know, by reason of birth order, that their children will have very different lives.

However the best course of action is to show both the benefits, I know I would rather have been the spare!

I would rather have been the spare too.

This is what her limited knowledge led her to expect !

I remember there were adverse comments about this post back in April ( was it only April? ) but how did I miss those hideous feet? Would you not get a pedicure if you were going to feature your feet?

Her next acting role

So she's cosplaying the dressing room scene from 24 years ago - Princess Diaries 2 (2004) called "The Royal Engagement"

It's really odd

This is a very astute observation.
As you said, they probably didn’t think about long term strategy but I bet The Queen did.

Without doing an exhaustive google search of all her last Christmas broadcasts, I do recall there began to be an emphasis on the line of succession with photos featuring her, Charles, William, George.
There was Christmas pudding making with the four of them when George was quite young. There were the strategic photos on her desk as she made the broadcast. Whether she was subtly making the message clear to H&M or more likely to the nation at large, they were clearly being excluded.

It’s also the case that The Queen had to speak to Meghan on more than one occasion relating to her being rude/high handed with staff, gardeners and palace chefs iirc. I bet she correctly surmised that having her living there would inevitably cause ructions and I doubt she relished the thought of bumping into them on a regular basis as she trotted about the castle to the various rooms and gardens etc that she would have been going to for whatever reason.

It may be a big castle but I reckon sharing it with H&M would be every bit as annoying as sharing a four bed semi with them would be. (Well nearly anyway). I think it would turn out surprisingly difficult to keep out of their way and avoid them even in a big castle. And why should a monarch in her 90’s have to do that in her own home?

@OtherS I too would be happy enough in Frogmore, but then I'd also be happy enough in Nott Cott - I suspect i maybe have slightly lower standards than MM!
Frogmore and Nottingham Cottages are both absolutely charming and would provide wonderful, magical homes for young children. It's nothing to do with standards, MM's standards are in the gutter as far as I'm concerned. Style over substance to a factor of approx 4 billion.
To want to swirl around in acres of space is just weird and, dare I say it, chavvy and footballer-esque.
I wouldn't want to be in Windsor because of all the bloody planes, but, as I say, I appreciate substance over style 😅(and the security is probably the reason they all live there).

I would so love a nose around the Windsor properties! Adelaide Cottage looks absolutely charming, if I was royal I wouldn’t want a monstrous property like Royal Lodge for example, spacious but not huge, full of character and charm would be my ideal so I baggsy Adelaide!

Brainless Tom Sykes reporting from Geneva having just watched Meghan's speech. She's not in lilac.

Me too, I'd so love to able to explore all the royal residences. I very much like W&C's new place, Adelaide felt a little like they were proving a point to H&M. I think it's much smaller than Frogmore Cottage? I think it looks more like a nice holiday cottage than a permanent family home for 5.

I really don't see the appeal of Royal Lodge though, it's not an attractive building at all from the outside, I can't imagine why Andrew was so very attached to it. I think his new house looks far nicer. Maybe it was better inside.

I do like Bagshot Park, though it is maybe slightly larger than necessary... Gatcombe would do nicely though I think, especially if it comes with the horses!

I’m not sure on the size of Adelaide Cottage, I’ve found this old picture of it and there appears to be another property right beside it, not sure if that is used for staff quarters maybe? I like William and Catherine’s new house as well, it looks comfortably grand! Not a fan of Bagshot Park personally, I don’t like the name and I think it looks rather austere. I do like Highgrove, must visit the gardens at some point.

No, she was never going to wear that lilac coat dress. It was always going to be the prominently displayed Armani blazer. She was making a statement with that insta post which had nothing to do with her "philanthropy" (which is only ever there to support her commercial endeavours). Her life in Montecito will leave her a lot of time to dwell, browse the internet, see what people are saying about her. That wardrobe closet post was laughing at pastels, laughing at coat dresses, doing whatever she wants because she can.

I suspect Adelaide Cottage was chosen because they wanted to see how it felt being based in Windsor rather than London before going through all the hoohar that can come with taking one of the bigger homes that’s not already properly within the security cordon etc.

We’ve seen how much negative publicity they’ve had from locals with the changes made to Forrest Lodge grounds - imagine if they’d done all that and then hated living there.

So they went for the best available option that didn’t need renovations or changes.

I think they also assumed they had a year or two more of the late Queen - meaning they’d have had a couple more years of a lower profile so no needing as many staff etc.

Just read an article about the Swiss event. Meghan looks great - speech was well written and it’s a compelling topic. She talked about the lost children - didn’t make it about herself.

It was a very good appearance. Now I didn’t watch the video so I don’t know if there were any of her usual weird elements like playing to the camera, touching people in an odd way etc.

But on paper and still images it was a good example of how to do that kind of event well.

If she conducted herself like that all the time she’d be so much more popular and likable.

But she overshadowed all that good with the weird photoshopped photo yesterday.

It’s a weird form of self sabotage.

The MSM is being really weird about all this. I know that the BBC and Guardian are wedded to the ‘Omnicause’, thus H&M get away with massive hypocrisy; but I’m surprised it’s so blatant across the MSM that Sophie, Camilla and Anne and their focus on women & girls is apparently of such little interest to their editors and journalists.

So do you think she is deliberately poking fun at the RF?

I'll watch the video tomorrow but a brief online Hello article (quick google) does sound as if she didn't make it all about herself, and spoke well. Which is good .
However it did say this "She issued a call to action at the end for parents, by setting the example themselves for social media usage....."

I still think they haven't got the point that what they do is considered by many not OK , maybe in a different way to not restricting children going on SM themselves and seeing things it were better they didn't , but still using their children on Sm largely for M's brand building is considered hypocritical of them by many.

I don't think the pink/lilac dress was ever going to make an appearance - seems just obviously a spoof of the Princess Diaries Closet of Dreams or whatever , but it would interesting to know if that black Armani jacket was the one she wore in Geneva. Or whether it will be featured on One Off - or has she <whispers> learned something.

Unfortunately the internet caused such a disruption to the financial model of print media and broadcast advertising that worthier stories and causes get drowned out by what sells clicks and attracts eyeballs.

Youthfull glamour, cute things, scandal, gossip and rage bait.

Even the BBC can’t resist the lure of populism.

Oh - just found this re Geneva

https://archive.ph/1R5Pq