M&S returns to penny bazaar roots in 125th anniversary ad campaign

by Caroline Lovell, campaignlive.co.uk 28-Apr-09, 10:45

LONDON - Marks & Spencer will focus on its penny bazaar roots in a new campaign to celebrate its 125th anniversary.

The campaign, created by Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe/Y&R, launches in May and will be narrated by Twiggy, the star of M&S ads from 1967 and of its current campaign.

It will focus on M&S as an innovator in retail, from selling bras to avocados, and on its penny bazaar heritage.

Although it will not feature M&S’s founding slogan, "Don’t ask the price. It’s a penny", the retailer does plan to launch a penny offer in-store.

Michael Marks, a Polish immigrant, founded M&S in 1884 as a market stall in a penny bazaar in Kirkgate, Leeds. He later paired up with Tom Spencer to launch the Marks and Spencer Penny Bazaar in 1894.