Stockton North MP Alex Cunningham has won a commitment from the Chairman of Marks and Spencer to ensure his company spells ‘Teesside’ correctly in all its future marketing campaigns.
Marks and Spencer have frequently failed to spell Teesside correctly in their marketing material, including their latest “Get Set for Autumn” campaign, opting to spell it with only one “s” in the middle.
Alex Cunningham MP wrote to the Chairman, Robert Swannell, expressing his irritation at the mistakes and asking for assurances that such misspellings would not be repeated. Recognising the frustration this has caused Teesside residents, Mr Swannell has instructed his marketing team to make sure such errors will not happen again.
In the letter he said: “I can understand your irritation at the misspelling of Teesside. I spent all of my youth in Yorkshire so it matters to me as well. I have directed your comment to our marketing team and hope it will have the desired effect.”
Alex said:
“I am very pleased to receive a personal commitment from the Chairman of Marks and Spencer to spell ‘Teesside’ correctly in future M&S marketing campaigns.
“This is of real importance to the people I represent in Stockton North and it’s not something I’m willing to ignore. Our Teesside identity is important to us and retailers and companies, large and small, should respect it – if we decided to spell London with two ns in the middle, people would begin to get upset.”