• Adweek, Thursday, April 21, 2011 10:16 AM

Brandweek may be gone, but the new sexier Adweek -- in an article whose headline starts by asking "Kate and William Condoms?" -- brings us a rundown of tie-in merchandise for next week's Royal Wedding.  Sales of such goods in the UK could top $42 million.

While government guidelines call for all these souvenirs to be "in good taste," Adweek thinks not. Former Rolling Stone intern turned Adweek staff reporter Emma Bazilian takes us from a British kitchen (where a full-sized Kate and William-emblazoned refrigerator holds a Dunkin Donuts Royal Wedding Donut) to the loo (commemorative towels and toilet seat) and, yes, to the bedroom (with Crown Jewels condoms and Viagra-laced Royal Virility Performance beer).

We're with Bazilian all the way when she concludes: "If, however, you're at all like us, the thought of hearing any more about the affair probably just makes you queasy.  Fortunately for all of us, there's always Royal Wedding sick bags."

Adweek was also nice enough to provide - right beneath Bazilian's article -- a twitter feed for the Royal Wedding hashtag.  So we learned from Banana Republic that Kate had shopped in the chain's King's Row store for honeymoon styles -- and the tweet even provided a link to a related story in The Telegraph.  There, Phong Luu writes that "the US-based brand is known as the 'more grown-up sister of Gap', its parent company, offering the kind of sleek, unfussily elegant, shock-free wardrobe staples loved by Middleton."  And how's this for a celebrity endorsement? "Indeed, according to an eyewitness, the imminent bride chatted to staff about how she 'loves Banana Republic,' and how she 'will be shopping with them in future.'"

And btw, Kate's apparently also a "maxxinista."  Yes, she shops often at TJ Maxx, Luu says.

Read the whole story at Adweek »