Humanising M&S

Wait, is that really Marks and Sparks?

The household brand has debuted a new interpretation of its “This Is Not Just Food” advert.

The campaign, dubbed #ThisIsNotJust, comes 15 years after the company introduced its famous tagline “This is Not Just Food... This is M&S Food” and adverts featuring slow-motion close-ups of food. The adverts were last seen on television 12 years ago.

Instead of close-ups of food, the new advert sees M&S customers being distracted from their daily lives and unable to resist describing the brand's food in a sultry voice, mimicking the voiceover of previous adverts.

Although it is a notable step a change for M&S, this Junior Planner welcomes it. It’s good to see how a well-established, household brand can mix it up without sullying their brand image and what made them great in the first place. This is a clever re-imagination of a beloved brand campaign that will certainly get chins wagging. In fact, it seems to be working already

It is making M&S accessible and humanises it without effecting it’s premium stance. We all know that M&S produce brilliant, delicious food but now they are putting a different,approachle lens on it. This campaign also creates clear water between M&S and Waitrose by adding another feather to the formers bow beyond eloquent food porn which is a bit done to death now. Don’t get me wrong I love to see beautifully presented food but that is no longer ownable anymore with every supermarket bring out premium ranges and hiring the same food photographers.

This is clearly part of M&S broader strategy to reach a wider market, with them at looking to into launching home delivery.

Can’t wait to see what they do next!