The Londoner’s favourite pin-up, Mary Beard, has once again sparked a Twitter controversy as she pointedly noted this morning the lack of grey-haired models in Marks & Spencer’s new British Leading Ladies campaign.
“Women in the new M&S ad are a great & feisty bunch. But unless I have mistaken H Mirren’s blonde, don’t spot a whiff of grey. Women go grey M&S!” tweeted the silver-maned classicist.
Marks & Spencer, however, detects a note of colour-blindness in Beard’s assertion. A spokesman noted that M&S had used grey-haired models in its campaigns, both “in the last autumn one, and in the current one”.
When told that Beard considered Dame Mirren to be blonde, M&S generously noted that it was “her opinion”.
M&S was widely praised last year for casting Yasmina Rossi, a grey-haired model, as one of the faces of its Christmas campaign.
The current campaign, shot by celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz at a cost of more than £100,000, stars Helen Mirren alongside Tracey Emin, Olympic boxing champion Nicola Adams, acid-attack victim and presenter Katie Piper and singer Ellie Goulding.
The 12-strong blockbuster ad replaces previous M&S stalwarts Twiggy and Danii Minogue, and has been widely criticised for its controversial casting and staid look.
One Twitter user commented of Emin’s inclusion in the advert “This is not just any sellout, but an art-world, once subversive M&S sellout”.
