MARKETING'S MONARCHS: For Some Brands, Britain's Royals Must Be a Royal Pain

As Queen Elizabeth recently remarked, 1992 was a wretched year for Britain’s monarchy, what with the royals’ various marital mishaps filling page after page of the tabloids. But Elizabeth and her kin aren’t the only royals around. Turn to a directory of advertisers and you’ll find a couple pages of companies with Royal as their first name – marketers of everything from vacuum cleaners to vodka to cruises to needlepoint paraphernalia. And a directory of brand names shows several that go by the Royal Family moniker – including a line of bed and bath products and a line of cabinet hardware.