Marks & Spencer recently threatened Ann Summers, the lingerie and erotic retailer, with legal action in relation to a promotion over the bank holiday weekends for bundling its products like a "meal deal" with a "starter", "main" and "dessert" product.

Ann Summers chose to mimic the groceries giant's famous "Your M&S" logo and slogan for its promotion marketed as a "Squeal Deal". Ann Summers created packaging using the same layout with lime green and white lettering against a black backdrop as the M&S branding and reversing the M&S lettering to read S&M. Ann Summers also parodied M&S's slogan by accompanying the logo with the words, "It's not just sex, it's Ann Summers sex."

Marks & Spencer threatened legal proceedings on the basis that the Ann Summers promotion with its sexual connotations yet striking resemblance to their own well-known food campaign would damage the grocery retailer's image and reputation as a family supermarket and clothes shop.

Whilst the Ann Summers promotion was clearly intended to be taken as a joke and arguably unlikely to cause confusion amongst the relevant public between the two undertakings, it is conceivable that Ann Summers would nevertheless have seen a greater increase in sales because of its promotion being a play on M&S's famous campaign. Accordingly, it is likely that if the case had gone to Court (had Ann Summers not decided to pull the promotion), that the Courts would have felt that Ann Summers should be prevented from "riding on the coat tails" of M&S's success.

23 May 2011