M&S Campaign Slammed By Mary Beard For Lack Of Grey Hair

We fell in love with the brand new M&S Autumn/Winter 2013 campaign, but Professor Mary Beard was not impressed with the high street store's choice of models. Here's why...

Mary Beard has criticised Marks and Spencer's Autumn/Winter 2013 campaign, slamming the ad on Twitter for failing to represent grey-haired women.

The beautiful shots, which were released to the public on Monday, show the high street store's new generation of models wearing the latest winter items aboard a boat on the Thames. Vogue's Grace Coddington, Helen Mirren, Katie Piper, Ellie Goulding, Tracy Emin and Olympic boxer Nicola Adams were all along the brand's latest picks. But Professor of Classics Mary Beard is none too happy with the choices.

She posted a message to Twitter, saying: '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!'

Mary made headlines last month when she exposed a Twitter troll who sent her abuse on the social networking site. She's now using the social media portal to vent her own views on the lack of greys in Marks and Spencer's Leading Ladies campaign.

The images – shot by celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz – are rumoured to have cost M&S £100,000 and the brand is standing by its choice of models, dismissing Mary's comment as 'her opinion'.

M&S bosses added that they used a grey-haired model – Yasmina Rossi – in their last campaign, and their current one.

Mary defended her tweet yesterday, when a user suggested she had 'too much spare time' to write articles about grey hair. Mary responded: 'All I did was one tweet yesterday. Took 45 seconds. Wasn't an article or statement - but a tweet. If only I did have some spare time.'

What do you think of the latest M&S campaign? Let us know in the comments box below...

M&S unveils its brand new Autumn/Winter 2013 campaign

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