Why Meghan Markle, Prince Harry’s activism is a risky move

From a 12-year-old ukulele player to a Texas tenor trio and a Vegas-bound ventriloquist act, America’s Got Talent has helped countless TV wannabes and wannabes find fame.

Consider also that the show has also managed to give professional word of mouth to the careers of Mel B, Piers Morgan, and Sharon Osbourne in the U.S. However, last month it was a very, very surprising face that appeared on the contest to apparently reinforce her image: Meghan Duchess of Sussex.

In an elegant camel-colored blouse, she sent a message of support to contestant Archie Williams, who was previously incarcerated by mistake for more than 37 years, with his collection of candles artfully arranged in his off-white Santa Barbara living room in a exquisite display.

In a year in which the real status quo has not been so much ignored as it has fallen by the wayside, this was the first time that any other, the inaugural outing of a former member of the Windsor House in a primetime television talent of USA show.

(Let’s pause for a moment and imagine Her Majesty’s face when a striped courtier poked his head through her front door to inform her that her granddaughter had just appeared on the same show as Simon Cowell.)

Meghan’s star turn on AGT was just one of many video appearances the former HRH and her husband, Prince Harry, made in the past six weeks, and her beige couch became such an ubiquitous media presence. Like a bachelor evictor with a new spray tan for spruik. .

Some highlights: Meghan enjoyed a tete-a-tete in the garden with feminist icon Gloria Steinem; appeared twice as part of Fortune magazine’s invite-only conference calls (one for $ 18,000 per person and the other a comparative bargain of $ 2,369 per ticket); both Sussexes appeared on Time magazine’s 100 list and used a pre-recorded video to mark the honor as an opportunity to dive headfirst into the US presidential election; and I enjoyed a recent chat with Nobel Prize winner Malala Yousafzai.

The Sussexes too, during other notable video appearances, said the Commonwealth needs to confront its “awkward” history, including the slave trade, and discussed “structural racism” in Britain.

In their guise as quintessential West Coast activists, their to-do list has also included tackling online hatred, social media addiction, racial injustice, and climate change.

Altogether, it’s an impressive agenda driven by your core beliefs, but there’s a deep-seated problem with your current strategy.

Time and time again we have seen the Sussexes speak eloquently and passionately about issues, draw global attention to them, and spark media interest … only for them to tune out and move on to the next of their causes for the day.

For all their clamor to make the world a better place, they’re starting to look more and more like all they are is sound and fury, which means another call from Zoom.

Sure, maybe Harry and Meghan have been quietly connecting with their (I guess) their studies, MacBooks purring as they come up with concrete solutions and strategies to help address the causes that matter to them. But if so, they haven’t shown it to the world yet.

And that is a risky strategy.

The new life of the Duke and Duchess, and the new brand, is based on the image of them as leaders and creators of dynamic change, two people who are at the head of a global wave of grassroots benefactors.

Yet almost all we have seen them do is sit on their sofa and seriously point out the problems of society, without offering a single original or practical answer.

Their hearts may be in the right place, but their brand is now starting to take on a distinctly pessimistic tone. Every time their faces appear on a screen, the Pavlovian expectation is now generated that audiences are about to receive another wide-eyed semi-sermon on the contemporary evils of the world.

Here’s the thing: this model of activism is only going to work for a while. Not only do true visionaries point out constantly rotating obstacles or problems, they also get stuck on solving them. If the Sussexes want to keep getting coveted invitations to prestigious events the Fortune and Time way, they need to start scoring some concrete achievements under their famous names.

If they fail to do this, they are only adding fuel to the fire of critics who have branded them as Obama amateurs sparking a hodgepodge of waking platitudes amid doodles in their dream diaries.

Compare all of this to the approach of William and Kate, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. They too have been stepping up their official engagements lately and promoting their pet causes; for him, climate change and environmental conservation, and for her, early childhood development.

Consider William’s celebrity-driven $ 100 million EarthShot award and Kate’s Five Big Questions parent survey, both revealed amid carefully orchestrated public relations campaigns. Both are projects that have been meticulously thought and executed before being precisely implemented at the NASA level.

Yes, none of the Cambridges’ campaigns are going to set the world on fire or are particularly bold or exciting, but they will make a tangible difference, something the Sussexes have yet to achieve.

Add to that the fact that William and Kate’s projects are inherently optimistic, and the underlying message is that change is impossible.

Essentially, William and Kate are spinning around in their legacy projects, while Harry and Meghan seem to be spending their days readjusting their iPhone’s ring lights and padding their sofa cushions in preparation for their next cozy talk.

Complicating all of this further is the fact that the pair are one Dancing With The Stars guest slot from being dangerously overexposed. The appeal of royalty is that it is a precious and rare commodity. When the queen’s grandson and granddaughter are seizing media opportunities similar to those of the inhabitants of the Real Housewife universe, their inherent brand equity is in danger of being seriously degraded.

Having hit the six-month mark in California, what’s marked about Harry and Meghan’s approach is how ambitious it is, yet the challenge they face now is translating all that speech into action.

Still, if there is an asset that is highly prized in its new home state, it is a good aspiration. Ask Simon Cowell and that teenage ukulele.