Jenny
From the Bloc
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- 21,832
Maybe the degree to which you can control your own narrative is related to how much you need from other people. For example, there are many top actors (thinking Tom Hanks or Jodie Foster for example) at a point in their careers where they can not only pick and choose their roles, but pick and choose how much access people have to the rest of their lives. They need people to watch their movies, but at this point the work speaks for itself for the most part.
Then you have the Kardashians et al, whose brand is based on their own names (things like product lines came as a result of fame, not the other way around), who rely almost 100 percent on their audiences, so it's a lot harder to control.
So for Meghan (and Harry to a degree), it really depends on what they want. If she's happy with doing charity work that's fine if it's just her doing it. But if she wants others to participate, then she needs their buy in and willingness to take action, and she'll have to give up some control in the process. Even more so if she wants to effect social change as she has hinted at - then she's trying to control her audiences as well as her brand, and that's not at all easy. Look at the number of celebrities (and companies for that matter) who launch earnest initiatives, establish foundations, work hard for something they believe in, but when you take a second look down the road, they haven't had that much impact at all.
There's also a thing called reputation capital. If you've built up enough of it, you can often weather challenges may come down the road. For example, Bruce Springsteen just did a Big Game commercial (talking about trying to control your brand, don't get me started on the NFL and the Olympics!) that received some criticism, and then it comes to light that he had a DUI a few months ago. Is this going to hurt his brand? Likely not at all, because aside from legions of fans and his extensive body of work that has always been his primary voice, he's done enough good stuff that I think most will cut him slack.
Harry has a decent amount of reputation capital thanks to his charity work and a certain level of public fondness for him, but at this point, Meghan has very little to fall back on outside her core fanbase. Perhaps the two of them are using this time to get their ducks in a row, do quieter work behind the scenes, so by the time they are ready to (and can given the p*ndemic) go bigger, they'll have a rich story to tell that will establish the narrative they want going forward.
Then you have the Kardashians et al, whose brand is based on their own names (things like product lines came as a result of fame, not the other way around), who rely almost 100 percent on their audiences, so it's a lot harder to control.
So for Meghan (and Harry to a degree), it really depends on what they want. If she's happy with doing charity work that's fine if it's just her doing it. But if she wants others to participate, then she needs their buy in and willingness to take action, and she'll have to give up some control in the process. Even more so if she wants to effect social change as she has hinted at - then she's trying to control her audiences as well as her brand, and that's not at all easy. Look at the number of celebrities (and companies for that matter) who launch earnest initiatives, establish foundations, work hard for something they believe in, but when you take a second look down the road, they haven't had that much impact at all.
There's also a thing called reputation capital. If you've built up enough of it, you can often weather challenges may come down the road. For example, Bruce Springsteen just did a Big Game commercial (talking about trying to control your brand, don't get me started on the NFL and the Olympics!) that received some criticism, and then it comes to light that he had a DUI a few months ago. Is this going to hurt his brand? Likely not at all, because aside from legions of fans and his extensive body of work that has always been his primary voice, he's done enough good stuff that I think most will cut him slack.
Harry has a decent amount of reputation capital thanks to his charity work and a certain level of public fondness for him, but at this point, Meghan has very little to fall back on outside her core fanbase. Perhaps the two of them are using this time to get their ducks in a row, do quieter work behind the scenes, so by the time they are ready to (and can given the p*ndemic) go bigger, they'll have a rich story to tell that will establish the narrative they want going forward.
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