Can we sinners outline the spin strategy Meredith Maines and the rest of MM's team are betting their careers on, from what we have seen so far?
Meredith Maines, the new chief communications officer of The Office of Prince Harry and Meghan, Duke and Duchess of Sussex, took on a huge challenge with the job. How to turn MM's reputation as a fake and a bully around, or at least make her more palatable to the general public, so that MM can build a profitable business which will refill her coffers and sustain her into the future.
So far, no one has succeeded in this challenge, although several have tried. If Meredith and team can pull it off, the PR world is their oyster.
I believe that from the start with three major goals were set:
- To wipe the slate clean from the royal family bashing, whining, victim narrative, and bullying reports.
- To rewrite MM's history in a more positive manner while still maintaining her prime asset, her royal connection.
- To rebrand her as a joyful, warm, generous person with skills and fashion others will want to imitate and hammer that message to the public as hard as possible.
The first goal was something the previous team had attempted to do by encouraging MM to stay quiet for several months. This was no easy task with someone who doesn't take advice, and is fond of Backgrid pap runs and clapbacks, and they didn't entirely succeed. However, there was no more Oprah-interview-style talk of how badly she had been treated, and after the "car chase" that wasn't, much less talk of how security was needed. That was at least something.
So Meredith had to work with what she inherited. Which was the cooking show that had already been filmed, American Riviera Orchard, and the Lemonada podcast, which was already a signed deal. She had to use those to bring about #2 and #3.
Some of the methods used:
Meghan's return to Instagram, as a channel to pump out her message directly to the public. With comments turned off, of course.
The New Year's announcement that 2025 was to be MM's "year of joy", along with the video intended to underline this visually. No more complaining! Only skipping and dancing amongst the flowers!
In terms of rewriting history, keep emphasizing that MM's true love has ALWAYS been cooking and crafting. (Never mind that the show makes it obvious that she doesn't even have basic cooking or food preparation skills, and most of her ideas can be found on other people's old Pinterests.) Blow up the Tig to much bigger importance than it actually was back in the day.
Since you can't use the name American Riviera Orchard, change it to something that underlines the idea that MM hasn't changed a bit from her gourmet chef, crafty self -- As Ever. (And it's so nice that Diana used that to sign her letters too -- a little more royal emphasis.)
But don't EVER, EVER refer to her as anything but the Duchess of Sussex. In fact, change her last name from Markle to Sussex. "Meghan Markle" has too much baggage. Let's give her a new identity. Meghan Sussex. If we bang on about it long enough, and correct people often enough, maybe people will forget Meghan Markle.
Get anyone you can to put out positive comments about MM and her show on social media every single day. If you have to resort to using her makeup artist and hairdresser, do it. Emphasize how humble and generous she is.
Put puff pieces everywhere you can about the show and how great it is. Especially food and travel magazines. They're cheap.
Use the Instagram to keep pumping out photos and captions to support your message that MM is joyous, domestic, and maternal. Work the kids in as much as possible, teasing slight glimpses of them to build interest. We need to use everything we've got.
At this point, the show came out and was panned by virtually every reviewer. Uh-oh.
What to do now? How to spin this? The new message is: The show was just meant to be a little feel-good thing. But what's really important about it is MM's CLOTHES! Everyone is raving about what she wore! So who cares about bad reviews? It's all about her FASHION!
Put out a massive amount of puff pieces like this one to support your rebranding. Get professional PR people to write them: https://www.adweek.com/convergent-tv/with-love-meghan-markle-netflix-show/
The mantra must be: Meghan is being TRUE to herself, to fight the inauthenticity that people saw her displaying in the cooking show.
Get her shopping website up and running immediately. Merch, merch, merch. Bring in the makeup artist again and have him do a wedding makeup collection to remind everyone of MM's most triumphant day.
And pray, as you prepare the ground for the Lemonada podcast.
I'm sure there's more.