PR Disasters thread 20

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More to chat about

The Daily Mail just updated their earlier story to say the same thing - Harry left it too late to accept the offer. Always so much ridiculous drama with those two.

(Though of course this is exactly what they were hoping for by delaying/prevaricating, so they can peddle the victim "they didn't want us and this proves it" narrative.)

MM is too media savvy to know that this shambles of a situation can be spun into a positive anywhere in the world right now. A hardcore section of Sussex Squad might swallow the victim stance, but she'll know how bad it looks for them.

Let's be honest, BP could quite easily have facilitated him last minute. This is a very firm statement. We will not tolerate your psychodrama

I’m hoping he has been told to sling his hook, however, it’s just been confirmed on the main BBC news bulletin that he is staying at BP. I know the BBC have been a bit lax of late but surely they would have checked that with the Palace?

I always thought Meg was quite savvy but clearly not. They will now merch the victim mentality all over again. More tearful interviews

This from the DM's updated story! They turned it down on Saturday morning then changed their mind!

While every effort had, it is understood, been made to facilitate the Duke’s stay, as a courtesy to staff and others involved, the Royal Household does require a minimum level of notice to ensure he could be hosted appropriately at a Royal residence.
Since this offer was first made, every indication from the Duke and his senior team has remained that the accommodation was deemed unsuitable, including in correspondence received on Saturday morning which formally declined The King’s offer.

But the Palace has the receipts this time – they received correspondence on Saturday formally turning down the offer to stay there! So if HAM try to spin it as being rejected, the Palace can just leak it.

How very gracious of Harry to "accept" the invitation to stay at BP (as reported by a "source" close to him). I think it's correct to say none of the RF actually live there these days, so he'll have it all to himself.

The bottom line is if the invitation is real the RF will have played a blinder by giving H the kudos of staying at BP while avoiding actually meeting him.

I don't know that they could. Because no one else is in residence at the moment, they probably have a skeleton staff and they'd also have to liaise with the Met over armed security. Harry's team apparently had a clear deadline to respond by Friday and didn't, then sent a letter on Saturday morning formally rejecting the offer to stay. Now he's changed his mind.

If they've plotted this to make it look bad on the King, implying he's got no room for his son, Harry can kiss goodbye to any reconciliation. The Palace has the formal rejection and can leak it.

I don't understand. Apparently Harry accepted, but he wrote to them on Saturday declining! So what's the truth?

I thought they’d wrung the victim bit dry anyway?

How does “they don’t want us 😭” help their desperate need for royal adjacency? That’s literally all they have left.
Even Meghan knows this is a disaster.

I think he declined offer on Saturday but quickly changed his mind but was told no

I would hazard a guess the palace are bracing themselves for the Tuesday verdict and probably don't want to deal with the meltdown from H if it doesn't go his way

Did his spokesperson brief the journalists ‘he accepted the invite’ and allowed them run with assuming he was staying there?

To me to looks like Harry wants to humiliate Prince Charles again by making it look like they rescinded the invite.

I don't think MM is media savvy at all. Her whole time since leaving the RF has been a string of media missteps. There isn't a successful PR person in the world who thinks she's made a single good decision in that regard, in fact the Sussexes are being used as examples of precisely what not to do in terms of marketing of the self/brand.

She's fallen for the myth that all publicity is good publicity and is too narcissistic (or wilfully myopic, or both) to comprehend how the rest of the real world that doesn't exist in her head actually sees her.

Of course BP will be blamed, so will KC, QC, The Wales family, the British press and maybe Mr Blobby.
It's so pathetic, so desperate and so entitled.

Agreed. And I suspect it's the same with Meghan, and that's at least part of why she's staying away. She doesn't want to be caught up in his failures either (though she's utterly unable to see her own failures, or complicity/role in both.)

So he's landing today with no bed ? Priceless. So he now has to stay somewhere with no security?

I wish we still had the laugh react for the Mr Blobby line 😆

So, has he now told the BBC he is staying at Buckingham Palace, despite being told he's left it too late, presumably, if so, in an effort to force his way in there?
This is becoming such an undignified mess.

I don't think it's deliberate media strategy on their parts, I think they're just chaotic and self-centred all the time and genuinely can't understand that the world doesn't revolve around them.

His team released a statement this morning! Despite knowing they'd formally turned down the invite on Saturday. Either they are idiots who have no concept of how a Royal stay works, or they thought they could manipulate the news coverage by pretending Harry had been rejected.

Either way, they all need to be sacked for such appalling handling of the situation.

What a outrage - Mr Blobby is a completely innocent party here!

Mr Bean on the other hand... based on HaM's approach so far I think he might be their new PR guru...

Blamed by who? HAM and the few supporters they have left?

Isn't she going to Birmingham? Or was that another spin ?