Meghan Markle was savaged by a PR expert over a “missed chance” regarding her podcast series following a key move. The Duchess of Sussex launched Confessions of a Female Founder, her second podcast show after Archetypes, last month and has released four episodes since then.
Each episode starts with an intro voiced by an unknown narrator promoting two adverts. A PR expert has criticised the move and claimed it does not align with the Duchess’s philosophy on “connection, authenticity, and championing women’s voices,” adding that it could also be perceived like her team is trying to “fake intimacy”.
Edward Coram-James, CEO of PR and SEO agency Go Up, told the Express: “Speaking of the intro… I think it’s risky to start her podcast off the bat with adverts.
“It’s clearly written to sound like Meghan is narrating, but it’s read by a completely different voice! This immediately makes listeners think that Meghan couldn’t be bothered or, even worse, that her team is trying to fake intimacy.
“This is problematic because Meghan’s whole brand is centred on connection, authenticity, and championing women’s voices. If she won’t even lend her voice to the intro of her own show, how are we meant to buy into the message?”
Mr Coram-James argued that while for most podcasters, an ad intro would be beneficial, for Meghan, it results in a “missed chance”.
He explained: For average podcasters, starting with ads is a good option. But for Meghan Markle, backed by a team, budget, and endless opportunities to craft a fantastic intro, it’s a missed chance.
“Instead, we get ads voiced by a second-rate Meghan Markle impersonator.”
In her latest episode, released last Tuesday, Meghan welcomed her close pal and “rocking chair friend” Jamie Kern Lima and spoke about her feelings when she first perceived the concept of her brand, As Ever.
She said: “At least for me, I can only speak for myself, at the begging i just liked making jam.
“All I liked to do was just make jam and preserves. And it went from ‘okay I’m gonna share this jam with lots of friends and family’ to ‘people really like it and it brings me joy, so maybe I can share it more broadly.’ “
The duchess then added: “But even then, I was in so much fear of failure or opinion that I wasn’t thinking big enough at first.
“I thought, ‘that’s great, I’ll get my cottage licence and I’ll just do a small batch of jam from home’.
“And I had to take a step back and look at what I was doing, saying ‘Am I playing small because I want to play small or am I setting motion playing small because I’m scared?”
