Branding the Royals

As the confetti settles after the Royal Wedding, the paparazzi wonder where the happy couple will be heading to enjoy their honeymoon. It seems that William will actually first be returning to base to resume his helicopter pilot duties before taking his bride off to some secret resort. We are told that William 'loves Africa' and has enjoyed his trips 'to Africa' over the years. We Africans always wonder what this actually means. After all this is like saying, William 'loves the World'; or 'loves Asia' etc. There are stacks of countries in Africa and they are by no means the same. The continent stretches as far north of the equator as south and has multiple nationalities, tribes, languages, geographies, stages of economic development, political systems, cultures and.... I could go on. Anyway, the Wedding was a brilliant coup for the British royal brand. Up to 2 billion people watched world wide. You don't get better marketing than this and the payback for the UK economy will way exceed the cost. However, one thing that struck me was how poor William's responses were when taking his vows. He has this rather clipped accent. This was evident especially when he was required to say 'I will.' You could barely hear him - his volume was low and he elided the two words. This was a big moment - it's the time you say 'I WILL' clearly and with the best King's English diction. The QSL is from LBC, London, heard on 1152 kHz AM from Johannesburg in 2006.