This year feels like it’s been a decade. And one of the biggest stories of the year, even though it seems so long ago, was the announcement from the British royal family that Princess Kate was going through health issues, and in the weeks that followed, the speculation over what exactly she was struggling with, fueling a social media sh-t show, compounded by major PR mistakes from their comms team, resulting in her having to finally confirm that she had cancer and was going through chemotherapy.
That is our focus for the purposes of this post – the work, the strategy, the pivot – and not her diagnosis and recovery. Because Kate is a public figure, a vital member of a front-facing institution, one of the most well-known brands in history. And, as we all saw, the way that her story was handled at the beginning of her health crisis was a total disaster that was, most importantly, a disservice to HER. At one point, you’ll recall, they actually threw her under the bus with the photoshopping.
The turnaround, of course, was the very personal video that she released, wearing a striped sweater, to let everyone know that she was fighting cancer. That video and the new one that just came out today are bookends to a much-improved game plan that deserves credit, she deserves the credit, because this reset has indeed been impressive. Meet you on the other side.
The style of this video is not new. Part home video, part commercial – kinda reminds me of those allergy medication ads that we see here on television in North America: smell the flowers, be in the meadow, don’t worry about your runny nose or itchy eyes. What’s new is that it’s coming from the British royal family, from William and Kate, Prince and Princess of Wales, members of a family that famously doesn’t do emotion, soft lighting, and (natural) wind machines. We are hearing, again, from Kate herself in voiceover, talking about her experience, leaning into emotion, and actually talking about love, loving and being loved, like a real person and not a symbol.
Kate and William are shown in ways we’ve never seen before – sitting together, close and bonded, him kissing her cheek; lying back on a picnic blanket, their arms around each other, intimate and warm; teasing each other and laughing as she pushes his head back affectionately. And the children, George, Charlotte, and Louis, are there too, they aren’t silent either. They are embraced, their parents are tactile and engaged, there’s a scene with their Middleton grandparents, the kind of domestic tableau rarely, if ever, seen from royals.
But the main character here is Kate, and she allows herself to be filmed like the heroine of a great epic, movie star style, or even pop star style – this could also be a music video for a country music song about empowerment, as Kate pauses by a tree with her eyes closed in deep reflection; walks through the field with her hands trailing behind her, her fingers grazing the tall grass; poses with the sun in the background, determined to rise with it.
It's effective and it’s fresh (by their standards), a well-executed message from an organisation that has had its share of stumbles. Kate has, even during this horrible health situation, reimagined how she’ll communicate with her public and how she wants to present herself going forward. It’s excellent work.
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