Prince and Princess of Wales called out for ‘increasingly obvious’ ploy

The Prince of Wales has popped up in a surprise YouTube video – but his attempt at social media influencing is not a good look.

COMMENT

Over the centuries, history has been riddled with moments when the British monarchy looked like a shaky proposition.

There were kings seemingly more intent on contracting new and exciting venereal diseases than ruling, kings and queens unnaturally fixated on showing the French what for and that one time in 1969 when the late Queen decided to make the world’s first royal reality TV show. (Well, it was ostensibly a “doco”, but let’s not split hairs here – seeing the Defender of the Faith whisk salad dressing in a tupperware container unquestionably makes Her late Majesty the Kris Jenner of the Hanoverians).

Monarchs have been pulling self-serving, self-indulgent moves ever since William the Conqueror probably thought nicking England would be good for building his profile.(#Conquest1066).

Prince William, heir to the throne and the human personification of a Volvo, is no different. He might be decades away from the throne, but that has not stopped the 41-year-old from having a go at the sort of ego-stroking outing that his regal forebears have been indulging in since the ink was still wet on the Doomsday Book.

A video still from a highly polished Netflix-style video released by Princess Catherine and Prince William following the Coronation of King Charles. Picture: YouTube

Late on Sunday night, William and wife Kate, the Princess of Wales’ social media accounts went into hyper drive, promoting his latest outing in support of Earthshot, his £50 million ($A$96.5 million), 10-year push to try and avert a climate crisis. (No one wants Clarence House to become waterfront property – imagine what it would do to the begonias).

So in this video was our prince valiantly petitioning the House of Commons or the UN or Jeff Bezos to intercede and stop the world melting? Was it William using his global stardom to get meetings with the powerful sorts who could actually do away with coal in less time than it takes to eat a scone?

If only.

William was also keen to promote himself. Picture: YouTube

Rather, the Prince of Wales was appearing on the supremely popular Sorted Food YouTube channel for something that looks dangerously like a bit of vainglorious publicity seeking.

The backstory here: in May, Earthshot officially partnered with YouTube, promising to “spotlight our finalists and inspire optimism”, and this 15-minute outing is the debut offering.

Let me save you from having to watch it: William turns up with ingredients, packaging and a special stove created by Earthshot Prize winners, the Sorted boys make veggie burgers using said products, and they and the prince then set up a burger truck where cameras record every breathless gasp and giddy smile from customers surprised by the identity of the bloke slinging the burgers.

Oh brother … and I mean that literally.

Watching this video, it feels like the sort of relentlessly self-promotional, dignity-lite guff that Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have merrily put out. (Harry asking to use a stranger’s loo during a late night TV segment; Meghan filming her hammy 40 x 40 video announcement in 2021, an initiative that disappeared without a trace).

What William’s Sorted video outing represents is the worst of social media reputational onanism. Hell, he manages to use “I” 10 times in the first two minutes – in a segment that also involves three other people talking too.

Let me be clear – his Earthshot Prize is bloody great stuff and exactly the sort of wildly innovative, big picture, deep-pocketed initiative that the royal family has proven surprisingly adroit at getting off the ground (Big shout out to the underappreciated Prince’s Trust).

The couple’s ‘obvious’ ploy is under the spotlight.

The products featured in the video are also brilliant – ingredients from an Indian start-up that has created a “greenhouse in a box”, which were cooked on a cleaner-burning portable stove created in Kenya and served in natural takeaway containers made using seaweed and plant extracts. It’s exactly this sort of ingenuity, creativity and gutsiness that will help save the planet.

However, while the video does highlight the innovation of these three companies, it seems much more intent on vigorously promoting William and framing him as if he’s personally giving CPR to in-danger penguins in the Antarctic.

And perhaps we could forgive William selling himself here so enthusiastically if this was a one-off, except that it’s not. Far from it. In fact, the last few months have seen such a Vesuvius-like explosion of Wales promotional videos and social media outings that we are close to a really off-putting, pass-the-sickbag tipping point.

King Charles’ coronation saw the Wales outfit put out more smug high-def, high-gloss footage than a Netflix production with a bottomless budget.

In the last few months we have also had Kate done up and playing the piano for a surprise appearance during Eurovision, Kate playing tennis with Roger Federer and William meeting a man saved by East Anglia Air Ambulance, where he used to work, which had the feel of an A Current Affair reunion special.

In July, when William visited an ancient woodland in Dartmoor to announce he was going to double the size of the temperate rainforest, it resulted in a video that looked like his audition tape to replace Sir David Attenborough on the telly. (How much earnest listening in a flat cap can one prince really expect us to swallow?)

William and Kate are straying dangerously into the Sussex-esque territory of favouring the stunty and turning to crowd-pleasing tricks. This is not even the Waleses’ first “surprise, it’s us!” video of the month, with them participating in a National Health Service Charity tea, trying to ice cakes and charming pensioners.

William and Kate have long championed a better way of doing royal work, with less ribbon cutting and tree planting and more impassioned, ambitious projects aimed at making the UK and the world better places. Pause for appropriate applause.

Where things are going skewiff is that the Waleses seem to be relentlessly intent on selling themselves to the masses with the subtlety of a grouse fork to the eyeball.

They are leaning so aggressively into currying popular favour and focusing so much on social media they could soon reach a tipping point. Their increasingly obvious appetite for self-aggrandisement is about as appetising as one of Princess Anne’s homemade rolled oat and spinach pies. (If it’s good enough for the horses …)

William and Kate are trying so hard not to be seen as stiff and starchy like his Pa and to sell the monarchy with all the desperation of a door-to-door double glazing salesman. It is all looking less like some social media PR-ing and more like a bells-and-whistles presidential campaign.

The Waleses are straying dangerously into Sussex-esque territory. Picture: Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images

The prince has been wheeling out his “one of the lads” routine with increasing frequency, such as sharing a curry and a pint while appearing on British footballer Peter Crouch’s podcast, while Kate has done her bit to transform herself into Just Another Normal Mum ™.

Last week, former Vogue doyenne Suzy Menkes took a bit of a pop at the princess saying, she was “a bit of a disappointment about jewellery. She gives the impression that she only puts it on when she absolutely has to”.

And while it’s impossible to determine whether Kate loves getting priceless baubles out of the vault to wear while she makes a shepherd’s pie or has about as much interest in sketchily-acquired emeralds as Anne has in Paris Couture Week, I still think her fondness for high-street and affordable jewellery fits in this same populist mould as this video push too.

Last year, when she wore a reworked Alexander McQueen dress and some $34 Zara earrings to the BAFTAs, she would have to have known that her high/low pairing would curry reams of good press. So too her wearing $195 Sezanne beaded earrings that looked like something a Byron Bay yoga teacher might snap up for Ascot. (She also wore a $193 pair from the same brand during the royal family’s annual Christmas church outing).

Kate’s Christmas 2022 earrings were a steal at $193. Picture: Daniel Leal/AFP

Ditto her $195 Royal Ascot 2023 earrings. Picture: Chris Jackson/Getty Images

Maybe Kate simply really likes these pieces or maybe she chooses them with one shrewd eye on the positive coverage they will automatically trigger. Maybe it’s both.

If the prince and princess keep going down this painfully transparent path, they are liable to start putting people off them, quick sticks. If the monarchy is as relevant and useful an institution as the king and the Waleses are so frantic for us to believe, then the actual work should speak for itself.

For example, William wants to end homelessness – well, go on then and do it. Sure, a bit of puffery and feather-plumping are expected, but results are what ultimately matter, not likes or views or comments.

In 2019, the Royal Foundation, which then included the Sussexes, put $5.8 million into helping launch a text message mental health service called Shout. Last year, Shout supported 260,000 people in the UK seeking mental health support and had 670,000 conversations.

What I’m saying is that William and Kate are doing good – nay, great – stuff, but they need to hit the brakes, pronto, on all the self-glorifying claptrap.

A handy rule of thumb – in any situation, they should ask themselves what Harry and Meghan would do. And then do the opposite.

Daniela Elser is a writer, editor and a royal commentator with more than 15 years’ experience working with a number of Australia’s leading media titles.