Meghan Markle’s Cooking Show Flop is ‘a Problem’ for Online Shop

Meghan Markle’s second season of her Netflix cooking show failed to deliver the product placement that would have turbo charged her online shop As Ever, a brand expert told Newsweek.

With Love, Meghan was always presented as a partner to the Duchess of Sussex’s lifestyle store, with fans of the show having the opportunity to buy items they had seen on screen, such as her flower sprinkles.

However, Nick Ede, a U.K. brand and culture expert, told Newsweek she had not done enough to make it clear those were As Ever products and after a lackluster response to Season 2, she may have now missed a golden opportunity.

That may have implications for Netflix too as it owns a share of As Ever, and therefore a slice of the profits.

“The viewership is down, people don’t really care about With Love, there’s some fans who will always be appreciative of it,” Ede said.

“For Netflix, the headache here is that, is this going to convert into sales for their product, are they actually going to make money from this?

“If you think about it, they haven’t really made any money just yet. Their investment must have been huge into actually creating the product and building the brand, rebranding it and putting it out there and this Season 2 is a missed opportunity which could have been a glorified infomercial if they’d got it right.”

Season 1 did succeed in promoting some of her stock, particularly her flower sprinkles which caught attention online, including some ridicule from critics.

However, it launched around a month before her first product drop, so those who watched the show right away were unable to buy at that point.

And when the As Ever store did go online, stock sold out within minutes, leaving many fans unable to sample her produce due to insufficient supply.

A second launch sold out similarly quickly leading Meghan to then expand her range, moving into wine.

Now, Meghan finally seems to have solved the supply side of As Ever with stock of both her food produce and her wine remaining on sale without immediately selling out.

Season 2 could have potentially been an opportunity to plug some of her new products except that it was filmed last year, alongside Season 1, before the wine was launched.

“It is a problem because obviously they filmed it back to back,” Ede said. “If they had done two separate seasons they could have done a lot product placement with her As Ever brand but obviously when the show first started they didn’t have any products.

“So you would see her using some flower sprinkles or you would see her drinking a glass of rosé but you wouldn’t actually attribute that to As Ever so there isn’t crossover here. That’s why there is a massive problem.”

Now that Season 2 has launched to a lackluster response, particularly in America, Ede felt a third season was unlikely. That means the opportunity Meghan had to use With Love as a vehicle to promote As Ever may have been significantly dented.

Whether a third season gets the green light or not, she will have at least one more opportunity with a holiday special scheduled for December.

“Obviously, she’s got a Christmas special and hopefully she’ll be able to include some of her actual products in there too,” Ede said.

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