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The Royal Family is experiencing a “short-term slump” in popularity which can be reversed, commentators claim. However, King Charles, the Prince and Princess of Wales and other members of the Firm must take appropriate measures to make sure they can grab the attention and affection of younger generations. Failing to do so, one PR expert warned, could be the “death knell” for the Royal Family.
Anthony Burr, a media and crisis management expert, told Express.co.uk the Royal Family will be “concerned” at the news most of its prominent members have lost popularity among Britons – as suggested by a recent poll – because “public opinion is the highest priority for them”.
Nevertheless, the situation can be improved by the royals by being more visible and targeting younger generations with the green agenda they have already been championing for years.
The founder of BurrMedia said: “The difficulty is, the Royal Family are at this crossroads, we had the sad passing of the Queen last year and it’s really important for King Charles now to ensure that everything goes as smoothly as possible this year.
“He wants to change things, but he knows he needs to do things gradually, he wants to get his agenda across, he obviously wants his green agenda to get across.
“And then you have the Prince and Princess of Wales, and it’s very important for them to be seen as modern, and also to appeal to the younger generations.
“The poll shows that, while the older generations still like William very much, he lost the support of younger people and some of them sided with Harry and Meghan.
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“So I think what they are going to concentrate on is how can they get to the younger audience and make sure the Royal Family remains relevant.
“In fairness to King Charles, when he was talking about the green agenda and the planet years and years ago, people thought he was a little bit crazy – but he has been vindicated on that, and that’s very important to the younger generations, to look after the planet, so that’s what they have to put at the top of the agenda.
“And this is close to William’s heart as well with his Earthshot Prize and various patronages.
“They also need to make sure they are out and about more.
“The whole ethos has always been don’t react, carry on, business as usual, but I think they need to up it now, be more visible and appeal to the younger generations more, who have the fate of the Royal Family in their hands, because if you start having a big movement of young republicans that could be the death knell for the Royal Family. But if they work on this agenda they are going to be fine.”
The death of the Queen, a monarch beloved by all generations in Britain and beyond its borders, the lower popularity enjoyed by King Charles and the bombshell claims made by Prince Harry and Meghan in recent weeks have created a “perfect storm” which made it likely for the popularity of the royals to be dented, the expert said.
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He continued: “The coverage and the stuff Harry has disclosed have been unprecedented, you would expect this latest poll to be negative, but I think that could be a short-term reaction and now, after the Sussexes had have the ball in their court for a while, they have lobbed it across the net and it’s up to those across the pond to see what they can do in reaction.
“Hopefully the media team on the royals’ side are working on a very good strategy, but I believe the trend can be reversed.
“The popularity dip should be short term because you got people who work for the Royal Family who know how to sway public opinion, what needs to be done.
“They do need to make sure they appeal to the young at the moment, and I think that using the green agenda, being more visible, that’s definitely reversible. The problem comes if they try to hide away.”
Another PR expert, CEO at 10yetis Andy Barr, also believes the Royal Family is far from being doomed.
“Let’s not forget that the royals have a successful history in doing this. In the days and weeks immediately after the sad death of Princess Diana, the Queen herself was suffering from a ratings slump because of a perceived lack of sympathy and action by the public and she obviously turned that around.
“Queen Camilla had a, now very publicised and very successful, PR campaign to try and turn her reputation from being ‘the other woman’ to a much-loved national figure and that was certainly not a quick and easy campaign, but it worked.”
Mr Barr added that, while the Duke and Duchess of Sussex “need to engage” with the media to keep a high profile in the States, Firm members can adopt a different approach.
He said: “The royals don’t need to be so in your face with their approach and if they keep doing what they are doing, which is highlighting the positives, their reputation scores will no doubt bounce back.”
A comparison with a similar poll held in December showed the Prince and Princess of Wales remain the most popular members of the Firm.
However, they lost eight and seven percentage point respectively in popularity.
As noted by Mr Burr, worryingly for Prince William and the monarchy, people aged between 55 to 75 showed a more favourable view of the Prince of Wales than those aged 18 to 34.
Princess Anne, who like Kate saw 60 percent of the people polled saying they have a positive opinion of her, lost four points, while both King Charles and Prince Edward experienced a loss of three.
The Royal Family as a whole lost one point in popularity over the past few weeks, settling at 53 percent.
The past few weeks have seen a large number of claims and criticism lobbed at the Firm by Meghan and Prince Harry, first via their six-part Netflix documentary and later by the Duke through interviews and his tell-all memoir, released worldwide on January 10.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were also hit by the popularity slump, with the former losing seven percentage points while the latter experiencing a loss of five percentage points.
A diminished popularity in the UK, however, it’s unlikely to be bothersome to the Sussexes, Mr Burr believes.
He said: “When they left here, they drew the line and the UK’s public opinion, especially with the media, is not as important to them anymore, they are looking at monetising their popularity in the States, so for them it’s all about the US. I don’t think it’s relevant for them anymore to be popular in the UK.”
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