Meghan Markle Is Getting the Last Laugh as Critics Can't Stop Talking About Her Strawberry Jam
Meghan Markle’s American Riviera Orchard is a huge hit even though it hasn’t sold a single product yet. Reporters around the globe have typed the words “strawberry jam” more times than they can actually count this week, and the fans are keeping track of each number of those coveted 50 jars. (Tracee Ellis Ross received No. 21 in case you are counting.)
Besides helping King Charles III sell out his charitable jars of strawberry preserves, Meghan can’t even stop her critics from debating the merits of her first product that only 50 people or so have had access to. But isn’t that the point anyway? The buzz she has generated from the lemon baskets with one jar of the exclusive jam is pretty impressive. If she decided to drop a second batch on her American Riviera Orchard website, it would sell out in a matter of minutes.
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Even The Daily Beast‘s royal experts are joining in the conversation with Senior Editor Tim Teeman weighing in with his thoughts. “I can think of nothing more camp than making a launch of strawberry jam and mysterious homewares as hush-hush and mysterious as a Taylor Swift album release,” he said. That sounds like a compliment to us, especially since Swift is the master of making everything she touches turn to gold. He thinks it’s “genius marketing” because what the Duchess of Sussex did was “create a product, create a buzz around the product, make everyone curious, and keep it out of the hands of your media tormentors for as long as possible.”
Royalist Correspondent Tom Sykes, who isn’t Meghan’s biggest cheerleader, found her PR approach “slightly baffling” and then he went into the health benefits of jam… um, what? “The other thing is, jam is actually pretty far from being a healthy product,” he explained. “It has a lovely, homely appeal, but watching jam being made has the same effect as watching sausages being made; you realize, with horror, that it’s literally 50 percent sugar, and the fruit is boiled for so long that it must retain very little in the way of natural vitamins.” He believes that Meghan’s strawberry jam is not going to be her core focus at American Riviera Orchard, though, because her social media strategy was “a branding exercise.”
“And let’s be honest it has worked: American Riviera Orchard has been on the tip of all our tongues this weekend,” Sykes admitted. That is absolutely the truth, and while strawberry jam might not be the key product of Meghan’s new company, there are plenty of fans clamoring for a taste — and that sometimes irks her critics.
Before you go, click here to see the 100 best photos of the royal family from the past 20 years.
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