H&M are currently doing a ‘Royal’ walkabout thing in Nottingham.

[SpottyAlpaca]

A crowd has turned out to see them. It’s currently being covered live on Sky News. Why on earth would anyone do this?

They aren’t working royals. They are just a pair of chancers who have scuttled back to Britain with their tails between their legs because they have died on their arses in the US. And now people are tugging their forelocks to them here.

People really are absolute fucking morons.

Christ, if they’d walked right in without acknowledging the people who’d turned out to see them, they’d be criticised for that.

I think it's understandable that people are treating the visit as if it's got a 'royal seal of approval'. There was what looks like security, barriers, BBC reporters and a walkabout. It sort of looks like the real thing, although somebody might have got rid of the graffiti had it been QE2 visiting.

A jar of jam is a jar of jam - not many check to see if it bears a royal crest before indulging in the jam experience.

But they do the same for actors, pop stars, politicians in certain situations etc.
It is a "famous person" thing rather than exclusively royal thing...

I had a quick peek at a headline and it was called their first public engagement. What does that mean if you’re a private citizen? Or are all celebrity outings public engagements? Not that I actually care. The only thing I envy them is the fact they can just up sticks and move to the Cotswolds on a whim. I’d love to live in the Cotswolds.

The use of "public engagement" rather than the more neutral "public appearance" is meant to imply that they are behaving in the same way as working members of the Royal family, I think.

I could do a "public engagement" but no one would turn up as I have no public profile. Z-list celebrities do public engagements when they draw the raffle at their local village fete. Tom Cruise does a public engagement when he does a walkabout prior to a film premiere.

Good! I hope the man from the community radio station who was interviewed really benefits from the publicity and their input.

Plenty of people have 'engagements' - mayors, CEOs, brainless slebs,

It's obviously not a 'Royal Engagement' but he is Prince Harry and a Duke.

For some people it’s a free and more convenient way to see them close up instead of going to Madame Tussaud’s. An easy activity on a usually mundane Wednesday in between doing a bit of shopping and having a toasted teacake.

Madame Tussauds have missed a trick. "Coming soon - animatronic slebs." They walk, they talk, they wave and do walkabouts!

Why are they even worthy of starting a thread about @SpottyAlpaca? Utterly bonkers that you think the ones going to see them are the bonkers ones and not the crazy obsessed mumsnetters.

They go and see them for the same reasons you start these threads, because they’re very famous and have people talking about them. If they weren’t of interest you wouldn’t have started the thread.

Shameless

‘@Moros
’frothingly obsessed’ - great and accurate phrase.

All very meta though because the ones being described as frothingly obsessed have others that comment almost exclusively about them, totting up their posts and threads.

"working royals" an oxymoron if I ever heard one. Are they up at 6, getting the kids dressed and putting in a 50 hour week?

If you've had second thoughts, you can self report and it'll be deleted.

The media is mostly sh!tting out their own PR, really.

Irene is 90 years old. She is kissing the ‘royal’ hand, with cameras pointing at her. There’s a lot of media there. What’s it all for? Why are H and M back in Salty Island?

Anyway that’s the visit finished. Back in the car now to relax with some soothing elixirs.

(Image under review - it’ll take a couple of minutes.)

Too late, never mind, do that next time.

Yes, because someone making a few posts about a small group of enthusiastic people who have posted thousands upon thousands of posts about the same subject over a relatively short period of time is exactly equivalent. Because 3 is the same as 50,000.

Glad you came back.

I would need some data to decide if I agree How many unique posters? What time period? How many posts actually about H&M?

At a glance I think most posters don’t fall into that category.

And are they posting on Mumsnet while they do it?

What did Justine call them again?

As I appear to have fallen foul of mumsnet's rules regarding TAATs, plus I don't come anywhere near close enough to caring about it to have bothered to count, feel free to do your own analysis. The raw data's right there.