The World has a Harry Hangover and Brand Sussex has a Problem
Now the Prince is an Open Book, Is there anything left to Sell?
The Prince is now an Open Book, Is there anything left to Sell?
There was a short cartoon after Prince Harry’s memoir Spare was released. Just two frames, side by side. The first showed Harry setting up dynamite outside Buckingham Palace, implying he was about to blow it up. But clearly it backfired, as the second frame showed the spent dynamite, Harry’s dust, and that centuries old palace, still standing.
Those two comically drawn images perfectly represent the state of Harry’s public life today. Every fresh television interview, every new written word, every rehashed complaint about his old Royal life, turns into another self-inflicted wound. He’s torching British bridges but putting his own public image on life support. And despite his best efforts, The Monarchy marches on.
Where does Harry possibly go from here? What’s next for the man formerly known as Prince? After oversaturating the global market, detailing every slight he’s ever had to anyone who will listen (including who got the bigger bed) revealing incredibly intimate moments of his life, is anyone asking for MORE Harry at this point?
Ummm… No.
It seems clear that people on both sides of the Atlantic are nursing a massive Harry Hangover.
It’s hard to know Harry’s motivations for taking this bizarrely personal path in the first place. Well, actually, I suppose it isn’t.
Money, and lots of it.
There’s a brief clip in their Netflix series, when Harry and Meghan have arrived at Tyler Perry’s vast home, and, of course, Meghan is recording, and narrating the scene on her phone. Don’t we all.
Meghan says — paraphrasing — “Here we are at home, except this isn’t really our home.” Then Harry chimes in, “There’s a world where it could be though,” and there’s a sly look and laugh, as if he knows he’s got a million-dollar game plan.
Harry and the “friends” around him (the ones taking ten percent) did know the secret to get rich quick: Talk about your Royal family. Reveal personal secrets, relevant or not, and let American outlets pay you a fortune to do so. Take that money and buy your own Tyler Perry palace — so much better than draughty old Balmoral! — and live your new mega life in the California sunshine.
It seems obvious now, after hearing so much from Harry, that after a lifetime of historic British homes and restraint, he was instantly enamoured by the fast cash and over the top luxury lifestyle of the California billionaires. He wanted in, and fast.
So, a man who was once obsessively private, who demanded loyalty and discretion from friends, made breaking his family’s confidences a viable profession.
Mission accomplished.
But now what? It really does take a billionaire’s fortune to sustain a billionaire’s lifestyle. Harry got a reported 100-million-dollar deal with Netflix, which is a mere one tenth of ONE billion. Billionaires have lots of hundred millions! As Tina Brown wrote, in Hollywood it’s not about this gig, it’s always about your next gig.
Does Harry have one? Where can he possibly go from here, professionally? What keeps paying their hefty bills — house, security, endless legal bills, etc.?
It’s hard to imagine his professional life has many prospects with a new strain of Sussex fatigue settling in. Are Netflix and Spotify rushing for more? Are there any companies waving lucrative packages? Any passive figurehead board roles being dangled in front of them? Despite his recent blaze of sales, ratings, and publicity, he’s ended up looking like the proverbial one trick pony.
I know what supporters will say — Look at his ratings! Look at the book sales! True, but those initial scores are not always sustained. Proof of that from Forbes Magazine, which addressed the issue in article titled: Prince Harry, A Brand in Crisis.
It pointed out that the Sussexes only non-Royal related project so far, Live to Lead on Netflix, has fallen flat: “With no exposé of the British Royal family members included, it was a bona fida flop… failed to break into the top 100 TV shows let alone the top 10 Netflix shows.”
Contributor Jeetendr Sehdev wrote that there’s a difference between a divisive, attention getting brand, and an influential brand:
The problem with Prince Harry is simple; I don’t believe his brand is influential, I believe it’s imploding.
Harry’s key messaging continues to revolve around family tantrums, fight for titles, and who got better media coverage from the Palace’s PR team.
Why Prince Harry’s PR team would think these repetitive messages would resonate in a book with the general public at this time and not create brand fatigue is mind-boggling to me.
Harry has a second problem. Beyond his Montecito walls, his personal life is in tatters.
He’s completely estranged from his family, and by his own account, many of his friends. His desire of reconciliation would make the kindest, most patient person want to shake him, and say: Harry! After everything you’ve just done, what makes you think anyone would want to reconcile with YOU!
Even his adored childhood nanny, and his son’s godmother, Tiggy Legge Bourke, reportedly chastised him after the Oprah interview. Harry wrote that she phoned him asking what had he done, why would he say those things about his father? Harry responded with his own line, which is starting to make him sound more Rain Man than Renaissance man, “leaking and planting, leaking and planting, they were always leaking and planting…”
He is clearly past the point of reaching.
Yet, unbelievably, Harry seems to think that his old Royal job is still an option, that The King would consider picking up the phone to “ask for support across the Commonwealth” as he described it to Tom Bradby. That lack of self-awareness is something. It’s hard to see how Harry will ever work again under the Royal mantle. It’s astonishing he hasn’t grasped that himself.
But the fact that Harry would even bring up the possibility spoke volumes to me. After everything that’s happened, that Harry would, in a way, swallow his pride, go on television, and basically say, “I’d still come back if you want me, Pa,” probably means the Sussexes don’t just want back in, they REALLY NEED to get back in.
Why? We’re back to the almighty dollar.
Getting a chance to shine on Royal engagements again, to dominate front pages as The Duke and Duchess again, to work with palace machinery again, and to soak up all the free publicity and status that comes with it, is something you cannot put a price on. If they want to keep milking the Royal cash cow for a lifestyle at this level, they need to keep reapplying Royal magic, and get more inside tidbits to drop. It doesn’t hurt that the Royal purse strings would cover the cost of that work and the security that goes with it, giving their own bank balance a breather.
However, the best thing Harry and Meghan can probably do right now, for their long-term brand, and themselves, is the exact opposite, and just disappear. Lay low. Very low. Enjoy your fortune, your home, and your children. Do local, low key charitable work, and resist the urge to bring a photographer along.
And perhaps in a year’s time, venture on to the world stage again. Give people time to forget about the frostbite and the necklace and the dog bowl — and all the stupid stuff that should never have been included in a serious autobiography in the first place. Maybe then, the British public would even consider seeing you at some sort of Royal function again. Stranger things have happened…
It must be incredible for the people who knew Harry, to see him become the thing he once hated: A person who couldn’t be trusted by their nearest and dearest. Harry may have dismissed those old friends, but what he hasn’t figured out yet, is that it’s not a winning public persona either, something he’ll need to change if he wants more commercial success.
Everyone can relate to betrayal.
Harry’s not the first person who’s been willing to destroy family ties in pursuit of gold.
In their Netflix series, he refers to people selling stories to the press, and says, again, without a shred of self-awareness, “It’s amazing what people will do for a lot of money.”
Yes Harry, we know. And now that you’ve joined those ranks, you may spend a lifetime dealing with the next question: Was it worth it?