Skip to footer

Royal baby racket?

The royal baby's birth is a time for celebration... and profiteering. 

|
Lefteris Pitarakis/AP
Royal supporters Gladys Richardson, left, and John Loughrey gesture to photographers as they await the departure of Britain's Prince William, Kate, Duchess of Cambridge and His Royal Highness Prince of Cambridge outside St. Mary's Hospital's exclusive Lindo Wing in London, Tuesday July 23, 2013.

Yesterday Britain welcomed Prince William and wife Kate's first child, the prince of Cambridge. As the third in line for the British throne, the child’s birth is reason for many to celebrate … and to rake in the cash.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge announced last month that they would not prohibit the selling of royal baby paraphernalia, thereby giving royal consent to a veritable torrent of kitschy souvenirs flooding Britain’s market, according to The Washington Post.

The British economy is about to undergo a royal baby boom. As The Christian Science Monitor reports:

The queen’s loyal subjects will spend approximately  £243 million (or $372.6 million) celebrating the prince’s birth, according to the UK-based firm Centre for Retail Research (CRR). That estimate includes £87 million on celebrations and party supplies, £80 million on merchandise like souvenirs and toys, and £76 million on media including books, DVDs, magazines, and newspapers.

Some of the royal baby memorabilia is quite tame, such as the royal baby mug offered by Harrods, complete with the image of a crowned teddy bear (sorry, it's sold out now). Other products, however, test the limits of tactfulness. Take the royal baby sick bag for example, designed by British artist Lydia Leith.

And it’s not only the commoner businesses who are getting in on the royal baby racket; the royal family is poised to make a pretty penny from the newborn’s arrival. As the Mirror reports, the royal family will be releasing its own line of merchandise to celebrate the royal couple’s first child. This will be the first time that the Royal Collection Trust, the charitable organization which manages the monarchy's art collection and oversees its official memorabilia line, will be releasing baby items as souvenirs. And considering that the family sold £5 million ($7.67 million) worth of royal wedding souvenirs, it looks as though the royal baby will quite profitable.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Royal baby racket?
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2013/0723/Royal-baby-racket
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe