M&S Ad Apologizes for Lingerie Surcharge

(MoneyWatch)  Marks & Spencer, a major UK high-street retailer, has taken out full page ads in newspapers apologizing for its policy of charging an extra $3 for bras that are size DD or larger. The ad (pictured) says "we boobed."

Context: This sounds trivial until you realize that everyone -- everyone -- in the UK buys their underwear at M&S. The apology ad explains:

It's true our fantastic quality larger bras cost more money to make, and we felt it was right to reflect this in the prices we charged. Well, we were wrong, so as of Saturday 9 May, the storm in a D cup is over!

M&S had been under siege from an internet-based protest group, Busts 4 Justice, founded by 19-year-old Becky Mount to represent larger women who felt they shouldn't have to pay more for their clothing. Check out their Facebook page. The AP:

The group, which grew exponentially in the last few days, had vowed to challenge ... M&S executives at the company's annual meeting this summer. Mount said this threat, and growing media support for their crusade, made the company's leaders realize they were losing the public relations battle.

''They didn't want a lot of big-breasted women storming their meeting,'' said Mount, 19. ''I think they realized they were dealing with a much bigger force than they thought originally, and that we weren't going to go away.''

There's a priceless interview with Mount's cofounder, Beckie Williams, in The Argus. Sample quote:

I'd been whingeing about it for months and in October I wrote to Marks & Spencer about it and it wrote back to say bigger bras cost more to make.

I wrote again, asking why it didn't apply the same policy to knickers.

• See previous coverage of fake advertising controversies:
• CNN Won't Run Anti-Abortion Ad Featuring Obama
• Calvin Klein's "Banned" Orgy Ad Is Part of Predictable Fake Controversy Trend
• PETA's "banned" Super Bowl commercial features mostly naked models doing suggestive things with vegetables.
• GoDaddy traditionally runs a "tame" version of its sexy ad on the Super Bowl and carries an "uncut" version on its web site.
• Los Angeles-based ad shop Cesario Migliozzi attempted to buy a Super Bowl ad and then auction off the ad in seconds-long chunks to other advertisers.
• Apparel maker Weatherproof was "banned" from buying a 2-second ad on the Super Bowl.