Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, will be partnering with Procter & Gamble through their Archewell Foundation.
The Archewell Foundation site says that the multi-year, global partnership is based on “shared values” and will focus on “gender equality, more inclusive online spaces, and resilience and impact through sport.”
Procter & Gamble and the Archewell Foundation previously worked on VAX LIVE: The Concert to Reunite the World, an event focused on inspiring vaccine confidence hosted by Global Citizen.
It raised over $300 million for increased global access to COVID-19 vaccines.
P&G also supported the Archewell Foundation’s Mother’s Day donation to Harvest Home, an organisation supporting unhoused mothers in Los Angeles County.
The couple currently lives in California with their son, Archie. They are currently expecting a baby girl.
In terms of gender equality, the partnership will “elevate the voices of adolescent girls to ensure their point of view and lived experience is heard at the tables where decisions are made.”
For online spaces, the two organisations are “undertaking a joint effort in support of building a better online environment that unlocks positive, compassionate, and creative spaces.”
Finally, with regard to resilience and impact through sport, the partnerhsip will build on Prince Harry’s “long-standing work to showcase the power of sport in the recovery of wounded, injured, and sick service members and veterans around the world—as creator and founder of the Invictus Games and more—and as part of P&G’s sponsorship of Paralympic athletes.”
P&G’s brands include Tide, Vicks, Oral B, Olay, Gillette and more.
Famously, at age 12, Markle wrote a letter to Procter & Gamble over a sexist soap ad. According to the Tatler, the letter read:
“Dear Sir, Last week at my school we watched the news for social studies… we saw a commercial for, ‘New Ivory Clear dishwashing liquid’. In the commercial they said ‘women are battling grease’, meaning only women do dishes. When I heard this, the boys in my class started saying, ‘yeah, that’s where women belong, in the kitchen’… So I was wondering if you’d be able to change your commercial to ‘people all over America’.”
Markle was interviewed about the letter at the time on Nick News, and also referenced the letter in a 2015 UN Women speech for International Women’s Day.
One month after receiving the letter, Procter & Gamble changed their tagline to Markle’s proposed ‘People all over America’.
