Meghan reminds me of a mentee I once had. Lovely girl and very eager, but she continuously overburdened herself and nothing ever got done right. Every single review she got noted that she had to pick her projects and make sure she had enough time to do things properly.
Yep, I’m seriously wondering what all their pr people are doing. Is it a vacation for them? KP usually has three paragraphs in their press releases detailing (i) the charity, (ii) what they do and how, (iii) a short comments from the charity leader and one of the participants talking about the effectiveness of the charity, and (iv) something linking the charity with the royals’ interests. That stuff then ends up on all the articles. Yes, it usually ends up at the bottom of the articles after all the clothing and cute pic/anecdote info, but it’s usually there. This time the charities barely get a mention.
I’ve given up trying to figure out what the Formula 1 kids were doing (some kind of after school program?). It looked interesting and I wanted to know more, but there was no info anywhere.
This is what they put out about the beach cleanup (I’m using People Mag because Simon Perry is the king of copy-paste)
No beach cleanup happened, and the anecdote with the participant was all about how awesome Harry was.
I know! I went “wait, she changed from a navy dress into an IDENTICAL navy dress????” But it turned out it was black. The macaroni necklace was the best part of that outfit, imo.
This looks very sloppy to me. The clothes are sloppy. The coverage is all fluff. I thought maybe she was dressing sloppily because this was her “I focus on the substance of the tour” trip (those binders!), but that doesn’t seem to be the case. The substantive stops are not highlighted at all (and, as in the case of the aboriginal school, are sometimes shoved out of the way), which is a shame. Part of it is that they have so many events they all kind of blend into anonymous handshaking and cute kid pics, but part of it is that the charity stuff is treated as just background to Harry and Meg’s love story.
She met an after-school rugby program for girls and she doesn’t play rugby. The program is ironically named “Girls Can” and Meghan showed everyone that some girls actually can’t.
They were supposedly going to clean up a beach (which would have been great for awareness), but then they didn’t get to clean up. This reminds me of the drought-awareness stop in Dubbo which turned into a deluge. Both events became”Meghan and Harry hold hands as they meet with cute kids and eat,” which seems to be the theme of the tour.
The social cafe visit (they help indigenous kids) turned into a Tig-friendly food tasting with the chef. I don’t think we met any of the indigenous kids.
The aboriginal school was embargoed and thus overshadowed by her banana cake. Kudos to Emily Andrews for actually getting interviews from the kids.Yes, it was a rote”she’s a role model” quote, but at least the kids got some visibility.
“You’re really speaking my language” is the new “it’s amazing.” She’s saying that to everyone. I really admire how she manages to turn other’s people work into a statement about herself. This takes real talent.
Kate’s crowds were bigger. Someone had comparison pics up.
They still got a lot of people. One thing I noticed is that a ton of kids were pulled from schools. Several were interviewed, and if you look at Kate’s photos, you will notice that there was a higher proportion of grown-ups in their pics.
I wouldn’t say there’s no work involved. It’s different work from a regular 40-hour per week day job. All the normal “work” happens behind the scenes. Tour is regular pr work, and I’m sure there are a lot of publicists who could tell you that they do “work” even if it’s not work similar to your own.
Harry and Megs aren’t doing a good job of that work though. They’re supposed to be highlighting Australia and charities and the good work of other people. But they’re just making it all about them.
But I have to admit, I AM hoping Jess shows up to an engagement in her skin-tight spandex and trout lips. The brf is safe in Will’s hands and these two baby-sex-cake baking idiots are hella entertaining. It’s like a Keeping Up with the Kardashians spin-off.
I think they usually send out press releases to that effect. Harry and Meghan’s press releases are just different.
It appears to me that Meaghan is changing how the KP press officers that work for Harry and Meaghan perform their PR. PR for W&K is still typically work focused in a traditional royal manner. However, Meaghan and Harry’s PR seems to be taking a turn towards typical celebrity PR tricks.
Even Rhiannon Mills, Sky News’ royal correspondent, commented on Monday that the royals typically did not make such announcements before major events or tours in order to not detract from their work. In other words, the baby announcement on Monday was not normal for the BRF.
“Why couldn’t Harry and Meghan just wait one more day to share the good news with the entire family? Why steal the thunder of Eugenie on her big day? Honestly, they will always have a lot of attention than Eugenie, don’t try to take even that away from her on her one big day.” – Submitted by Anonymous
“I think it’s incredibly tacky and rude to announce to the family that you’re pregnant at someone else’s wedding. That’s akin to proposing to your girlfriend after the couple said their vows. There’s a time and place for that. Congratulations, I guess.” – Submitted by Anonymous
“I understand that it’s exciting news, but it was rude of Harry and Meghan to let family know she was pregnant at Eugenie’s wedding, They should have let her have her moment rather than trying to take away from her and Jack.” – Submitted by Anonymous
“I wish that Meghan and Harry had actually waited for the dust settle regarding all the hype around Eugenie’s wedding day before announcing they were expecting. It’s rude not to let Eugenie at least have her moment.” – Submitted by Anonymous
“It was downright rude of Meghan to announce her pregnancy on Eugenie’s wedding day. Talk about trying to steal the bride’s thunder by making it all about you.” – Submitted by Anonymous
“I absolutely hate that not even a full day had passed after Eugenie and Jack’s wedding before Harry and Meghan’s pregnancy announcement. They really screwed them over. Could they not have scheduled the Australia tour even a little bit After Eugenie’s wedding to allow her HER time in the spotlight.” – Submitted by Anonymous
“Meghan and Harry shouldn’t have announced the pregnancy at the wedding. Just let Eugenie have her day! She already came under enough scrutiny from the press.” – Submitted by Anonymous
I KNOW! I can’t believe I didn’t figure it out myself. I saw someone posting it, and I’m now waiting for the “Meghan’s tender secret tribute to her unborn child” articles. These two love their secret messages, don’t they?
Personally, I think it’s rather childish and gross (because the spooning bananas post was oddly sexual) and unworthy of a royal engagement, but I bet these two were cackling when they came up with it. They are mentally 12 years old.
Chocolate is Meghan, who is black. Harry is the ginger. Bananas is shagging.
Put them all together and bake, and you get a “homemade bun fresh out of the oven,” i.e., A BABY.
It’s a Sussex Baby Sex cake. I bet they thought it was absolutely hilarious. No wonder they were laughing and joking all through that engagement.
I’m half appalled because this was, after all, a formal royal engagement where they were representing the queen, and half admiring because they got Rebecca English to EAT that thing. I bet they got a good laugh out of that.
The press always focuses on the crappy stuff–the clothes, the “looks of love,” the pda etc… The royals used to be really good at using that to attract attention to their work and the charities. That’s why we have had all of that diplomatic dressing and country-specific jewelry. It’s also why Kate’s charity work is tied to her art degree or her family or her love for sports, Will’s is tied to Africa and motorcycles, and Harry’s was tied to Africa, his mom, and the military. They know the biographical stuff brings media interest (particularly the Di stuff).
The problem with Harry and Meghan is that they don’t tie the biographical stuff to anything. She visited a fracking girls’ schools, similar to the one she attended as a child, which would have been a great way to tie in the biography stuff to an actual worthy cause. But what they did do? They embargoed it and focused on banana bread.
it has been this way since that Myna Mahila essay where she forgot to link to the charity.
Yup. Something just seems off about him ever since the cookbook rollout. Doesn’t seem like the guys I’ve known in the past who are getting ready to be a dad. His immaturity is off the charts now. Almost wonder if Meghan is encouraging some of his immature behavior…
It’s not just you. This has been a complete snooze fest. Her fans seem to be really excited about mundane stuff like binders, banana bread, and umbrellas, but to me this is like watching my cousin’s Instagram vacation pics, except my cousin dresses better, does more interesting stuff, and takes better pictures.
I wonder if part of the problem is that we don’t have very good pics. Tim Rooke and Chris Jackson are opting for Meghan’s preferred black-and-white pics and the monochrome palette makes this more boring than usual.
Rooke posted some of his old Harry pic and the different between then and now is striking–uniforms, landmarks, bright colors, and animated expressions before and monochrome pics, anonymous locations, neutral clothes, and stiff social smiles now.
It’s just a supremely boring tour. The clothes are bland neutral crap that doesn’t fit. The settings are meh. The stunts are all stuff they’ve done before with another message piece of clothing like the Husband shirt at Invictus, another girl who looks like Meghan like the actress wannabe at Stemettes, and another baby related medical event just like the one they did in Ireland. Daphne Dunne stands in for Nottingham’s Haribo lady and so on.
One of the things I hate the most about these two is that ALL of their events are 100% biographical. They are supposed to be highlighting the countries and charities they visit, but, instead, it’s all MEMEMEMEME. The focus is on how Harry’s fans worship him, or how Meghan inspires biracial girls, or her cooking skills, or her relationship with her mother, or her American background, or whatever. It’s ALL bout THEM.
I thought he sounded very robotic, and the “upcoming baby” part was just weird. “No better place to announce the upcoming baby…”?????? It sounded like he was talking about a Hollywood movie or something.
“A” baby…”the” upcoming baby…the language they are using is oddly neutral.
I’m not sure what to think. Harry spent practically all of August in Africa, which is pretty weird for a guy who has always wanted a family to do, when he’s said he’s always wanted to have kids.
And then they never showed up a Balmoral, which given that these two were going to be on tour, they could have showed up there and told the Queen then that there might be the possibility of a pregnancy. But no. They had to save it for Eugenie’s wedding.
Plus, there was Meg’s solo glass of champagne on her flight to Canada, which wouldn’t have been as bad if it was accompanied by food…
I’ve been kind of wondering all day when exactly was it that he found out Megs was pregnant, for certain. Given the timeline, he was in Africa for most of August. They partied it up on a weekend in Amsterdam. He looked super nervous inside the chapel at Eugenie’s wedding. Has he really known about it as long as she has?
Or is he just headed for a meltdown by the end of this tour?
Defiantly? I see no evidence of that. We have no idea how they interacted at the reception, where there were no press cameras.
Wearing Diana’s jewelry may be loaned. I seem to recall the huge, aquamarine ring Megs wore in her reception photos was referred to as a loan for the occasion.
Regardless, her wearing her deceased mother-in-law’s jewelry is kind of gross.
I’ve stopped guessing at what the revealed secrets could be. Every time I have an idea of what new thing could come out, something entirely different but not great still happens.
I don’t think the BRF is saying to ignore warnings, but they’ve been put in a tough spot by Harry and Megs. I don’t think the Queen, Philip, Charles, William, or Kate is thrilled with the situation. But what else can they do? Cause a public relations disaster for Tonga and Fiji? Megs would probably complain if they forbade her from going there. They’re in a no-win situation at the moment.
House of Brat 