Biting the hand that feeds you!
So, Netflix is coming out today (December 8) with a slick mini-series about and with Prince Harry and his lovely spouse, Meghan. I am not sure what the story is about, nor am I likely to watch any of it, but after exchanging on WhatsApp with family members, I realized that I had to write a post on this matter. It will be fun, and it is an amusing follow-up to one of my early pieces, Harry got a job (March 31, 2021).
The other day, I came across an opinion piece in the Guardian about how Harry and Meghan are showing the royal family how brand management is done1. Now, I am not going to delve further on this topic and the value of the opinion piece or its position, but reading it again, after the WhatsApp exchange, got me thinking about all this and the past 4-6 years’ history of the Harry/Meghan vs English royal family.
I read how Harry and Meghan criticized the royal family and even accused it of racism against Meghan, how Harry got angry when he could not Trademark the term «Sussex Royal», and certainly how they left their «Royal» duties to live as normal citizens in California!
Almost since the start of their ‘normal citizen’ endeavor, they have been blessed with publicity and yes controversy (no good celebrity can live without it)! And now a mini-series, and who knows what else to come in the future. But, ....
Don’t they ow their very fame and celebrity to the fact that Harry is a member of this royal family? Yes, the couple is very ‘chic’, as we would say in France. They have good marketing advisors, and a lot of paparazzi appeal. But if Harry were not a royal and had not criticized them so much, the couple would’ve been a classic celebrity because of Meghan (she had a celebrity life before meeting Harry), but that’s it.
So Harry and Meghan have been criticizing the very same institution that gave them everything (or maybe just the one thing) they need to be Super-celebrities. In a way, they are biting the very same hand that is feeding them and has given them the means to do so.
Paris, December 8, 2022
Zeejay