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Royal Wedding

December 5, 2011 by · Comments Off on Royal Wedding 

Royal Wedding, Is there really any interest in the Indian public about the British Royal family and their activities, the very polite Buckingham Palace press officer asks me. Is he kidding or what, I tell him. Royalty always sells, and these days, when you have a glamorous young royal like Kate, not to mention a good-looking William thrown into the mix, of course there’s loads of interest.

The live telecast of the Royal wedding probably hit cricket-level TRPs on Indian television. The British have a very peculiar relationship with their Royals. They somehow can’t get enough of them at one level , if you go by the almost-constant barrage of photos and kind of excitement that a Royal wedding generates. At another, they act as if they’re somehow embarrassed at still having them around.

We’re all queued up to be ushered into Her Majesty’s presence, and some V important media dignitary is being blase with another V important media dignitary about ‘oh, here we go again’ . They all show up though, the creme de le creme of British media, and jostle with the rest for their 10 seconds of face-time with Her Majesty – or, if you’re the fashion press, with the Duchess of Cambridge.

Still, the British don’t think it’s at all odd that at a time when the world is about to go to hell, a commonwealth heads of state meeting has the time to change an antiquated act of succession so that Prince William’s still-hypothetical daughter can officially take the throne – maybe sometime in the next century if the House of Windsor’s longevity is any indicator.

It’s something the rest of the world finds an utterly irrelevant waste of commonwealth heads’ time. People seriously ask me whether I think that’s progressive or not, when they’re not seriously telling me why Charles may not be such a popular King. These Brits are tap-tap-tap . Personally, I think the trouble with the Brits and the Royals is that they get it all mixed up with politics – and given the Royal’s political role is minuscule, I don’t get that at all.

They should just appreciate the fact that the British Royal family is about the only enduring British brand that is still globally admired and instantly recognised , manages to constantly reinvent itself, and now that Cadbury’s been acquired by Kraft, probably last of the Great British brands this country still exports globally. If anyone valued the brand of the House of Windsor, it would probably be right up there at the top of the NYSE.

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