‘Authentic?’ Netflix, not Meghan Markle, makes her jam, report says

For all of Meghan Markle s talk this week about being authentic by publicizing her viral pregnancy twerking video or demanding that people tell the truth about her a new document raises questions about whether she s being straightforward about what s going on with her embattled As Ever lifestyle brand and whether she s selling jam tea and other food products that align with current culinary ideas about what s authentic Speaking of those products the Montecito-based Duchess of Sussex disclosed this week that favorite items and surprises would go on sale again Friday after she saw the first collection fleetly sell out in early April But anticipated customers might be interested to learn from a new record on who s definitely responsible for creating Meghan s faux-country As Ever s products and it s not Meghan Related Articles Arnold Schwarzenegger Sylvester Stallone ended nasty feud to make money Panic over Kate Middleton s strength after her sudden no-show at Ascot How Tupac Shakur became an icon of political resistance and rebellion Eric Dane has reportedly determined love again as he battles ALS Prince Albert sought a secret love nest within six months of his wedding Puck business writer Rachel Strugatz announced earlier this month that Netflix the global billion company that streams movies sports games and TV shows including Meghan s With Love Meghan lifestyle show oversees the manufacture of her jars of raspberry spread as well as of her honey tea cookie mixes and edible dried-flower sprinkles Of program most of people who managed to total chosen of Meghan s raspberry spread perhaps didn t think that the raspberries literally came from her and Prince Harry s Montecito garden They also perhaps expect that Meghan like other celebrity entrepreneurs hires others to produce the goods carrying her brand name The marketing copy on the As Ever website admitted as much though the copy also tried to make it sound as though Meghan remained intimately involved with making her signature berry spread with its hint of lemon The copy noted the product being sold was inspired by a recipe that Meghan crafted in her home kitchen while the former TV actor advised Fast Company in late May that she has a gang that works closely with a organization at Netflix As Strugatz noted this Netflix club also is responsible for mass-producing packaged consumer goods that are tied to specific of the streamer s other shows including Bridgerton Stranger Things and Squid Challenge The sale of these goods through Netflix s online shop represents the streamer s opportunistic attempt to cash in on these shows popularity Strugatz disclosed Meghan reported Fast Company that her band is on calls daily working through product advance SKUs and inventory She also reported We have a field trip the following day to look at different manufacturers and suppliers as we expand the brand But Strugatz s reporting recounted a somewhat different story Bottom line As Ever would not exist without Netflix if only because Netflix is funding Meghan s venture as the duchess herself notified Fast Company But Strugatz also stated that Meghan doesn t employ her own club to develop her sad mix of white-label products She s not building a lifestyle empire an insider advised Strugatz There s no one that works for the brand She s outsourced the entire brand to Netflix They send samples and she picks what she likes Another insider familiar with the partnership countered that Meghan is trying to build a dedicated internal association to backing As Ever s improvement Strugatz published Still whether or not Meghan certainly meets with suppliers or works closely on growing the recipes and managing inventory her attempts to attach a home-grown authenticity to her products aren t entirely convincing The news that a Netflix club may be sourcing the ingredients or directing a factory to make Meghan s jam or her brand s honey tends to erode any sense of authenticity It s also not likely that Meghan and As Ever could ever say that their ingredients are locally sourced something consumers can count on if they buy more affordable and fresh-tasting jam from a stand at their hometown farmers realm In the culinary context authenticity usually refers to food that s not processed but real and natural and associated with a designated place and made with ingredients from that place Moreover it s curious that Meghan s raspberry spread as presented on the website comes with a familiar product label that purports to list ingredients But this label in fact lists no ingredients just information about calories and percentages of fat sodium or sugar per serving With no ingredients listed it s impossible to know whether the spread was made with actual fresh raspberries much less whether it contains certain kinds of sugar or preservatives Similarly the ingredients labels for the As Ever crepe and shortbread-cookie mixes lack information about actual ingredients In her description Strugatz cited other issues bedeviling Meghan s brand For one thing Meghan s future plans for As Ever remain unclear Up until this week she offered conflicting stories about when new products would be available again On her podcast Confessions of a Female Founder she disclosed her company was on pause and she narrated Fast Company that she would not announce the release of new products until the first quarter of as she announced she was shifting her focus to the hospitality angle One person who knows Meghan intimately narrated Strugatz that the haphazard rollout of the As Ever brand was completely the Sussex way And while Meghan and her fans claimed that her products were so popular that they sold out within minutes of going on sale Strugatz declared she was notified that creating a product scarcity was reliably part of the plan Meghan demanded everything to sell out within a day to create the illusion of demand Either that or too meager units were produced Strugatz questions whether the products were hastily created to capitalize on the March premiere of the first season of Meghan s eight-episode Netflix series It s also well known that Meghan ran into copyright problems with the original name for her brand American Riviera Orchard and seemed to come up with As Ever at the last minute Everything about As Ever reads like a lazy short-term answer to get something out there and into customers hands Strugatz commented It includes little of the vision or personality of Goop or Martha Stewart or the other lifestyle brands that Meghan had delusions of building Indeed it maps the Sussex way not fully thought out hastily executed prone to pivot