Although Meghan Markle‘s relationship with Netflix goes beyond her cooking show, the duchess could lose that giant backing in one swoop if her rebrand strategy flops amid a plagiarism row. The 43-year-old ushered in the week with the announcement of her big rebrand from American Riviera Orchard to As Ever in collaboration with Netflix. Meghan’s excitement as she unveiled her lifestyle business showed how eager she felt to finally present her lifestyle business to the world, which had been a long time in the making. However, before her business launch came to fruition, the star got hit with multiple allegations of plagiarism, and one potential legal action from the mayor of Porreres in Majorca.
Royal author Hugo Vickers believes this secession of attacks only goes to prove Markle’s potential for attracting hostility. Speaking to The Sun, the author noted that it’s normal to have many new brands experience “teething issues,” because there was hardly anything new in the world again. Yet, in Markle’s case, something as meager as a matching name with a smaller brand based in another city, or a slight logo similarity has earned her the wrath of millions. Vickers believes this says a lot about how most of these attackers only sailed on the bandwagon effect. He divulged,
“She’s bound to be just being attacked because people want to attack her, and maybe actually, they’re also jumping on the bandwagon.”
Meghan Markle May Face Netflix Axing Amid Plagiarism Row
Notably, barely hours after Meghan Markle announced her lifestyle rebrand in collaboration with Netflix, a New York-based clothing brand named As Ever turned to social media to cry out. The small business owner lamented the impact of Meghan’s identical brand name on his own brand, which has existed since 2015. He appealed to Meghan to change her brand name to avoid running him out of business. Concurrently, the Porreres’ mayor claimed Meghan Markle’s choice logo for her rebrand copied the town’s coat of arms, which has existed for centuries.
The royal author addressed concerns that this recent wave of attack and resulting negative publicity would ruin the success of Meghan Markle’s Netflix show, and lifestyle rebrand. According to him, such publicity, good or bad, had the potential of driving more people to watch the show, ultimately boosting the numbers, which really is all Netflix cares about when enumerating success.
This isn’t to say the Duchess stood no chance of getting the boot from the streaming giant at a moment’s notice. Contrariwise, like everything else in showbiz, Markle had the ultimatum of delivering quality to stay relevant or sinking along with her show if it fell short of expectations. Vickers explained,
“A company like Netflix wants value for money. They have to deliver… I suspect that if it doesn’t work, then it’ll get axed like everything else because that’s what happens in the commercial world. You sink or swim. It’s a tough world out there.”
Hence, to stay afloat in the game, Meghan Markle faces immense pressure to “come up with substance.” The star has one shot at that with her upcoming cooking show, which hits the streaming platform on March 4, the same day her lifestyle brand takes off.
