M&S "Won't bow to undies pressure"

Sure.

The whole thing seems to stem from the protesters misinterpreting the display as suggesting that women must have pretty little knickers, when it's actually saying that M&S knickers are must-haves. There is a very real semantic difference. To be charitable to the protesters, it would probably have been tone-deaf for M&S to suggest that women must have lingerie and men must have suits, but the wording doesn't imply that at all. A must-have is just an item of desire or value, whereas must have is more of a command that could be inferred to support. Both M&S's suits and lingerie are must-haves compared to cheaper, less stylish alternatives from competitors, which plays in with M&S's market position as a mid-high end brand, but the campaign isn't at all saying that anyone must actually have any of the products on show.

Hyphens are powerful things.

/r/ukpolitics Thread Parent Link - bbc.co.uk