Meghan Markle has started a new lifestyle brand called American Riviera Orchard, and it’s got people talking. She showed off her brand on Instagram, but a PR expert raised some questions about the launch.
The Duchess of Sussex shared the news of her new business on social media. American Riviera Orchard focuses on lifestyle and cooking and is Meghan’s latest media venture.
So far, Meghan has only put up the logo for her brand on Instagram, and hasn’t revealed much about her new business. The Instagram page for American Riviera Orchard says it was “established 2024” and belongs to Meghan.
But PR expert Ryan McCormick thinks there might be some problems with how Meghan has started her brand.
Speaking to The Mirror, Mr McCormick said: “From a PR perspective, I don’t find the launch of American Riviera Orchard impressive in any capacity. The company’s Instagram page has over 518,000 followers. I’m highly suspicious that most of those followers are fake.”
He wonders why so many people followed the account so quickly and why they don’t show how many likes each post gets. Mr McCormick also noticed that lots of the people who comment on the posts haven’t posted anything themselves.
He added: “This is a major red flag.”
The PR guru pointed out that the company’s website needs work. He said: “When you go to American Riviera Orchard’s website is there a mission statement, a product line, anything about the company? No. There is a place where you can sign up for our email address.”
Mr McCormick, from Goldman McCormick PR, added: “I think Meghan blew a big opportunity here. If she had products ready to do and then got all this attention, sales would probably be healthy.”
He made these remarks after American Riviera Orchard was copied by fake accounts online. These imposters set up Instagram accounts with the same name as the business.
They even copied Meghan’s style, using the same logo and font. Some of these copycat accounts have got up to 1,000 followers already.
