It's been a bit of a bad few months for Marks and Spencer. Everyone seems to want their head on a party platter. The youngsters (in Marks and Spencers' case under-50s) don't seem to want anything to do with them, yet the Golden Oldies (that's women over 50 who still have the strength to dress themselves) are getting their girdles in a twist because they feel they are being misrepresented, and if you've made a career on linen jackets and mid-length pleated skirts, then you don't want to get them angry.

Maybe this is what has prompted M&S to drop their glam adverts, which were designed to get a young customer in and refocus their efforts on keeping their original customers…

Unfortunately this means that the stars of the adverts; Dannii Minogue, Lizzie Jagger and Myleene Klass are out of a job. No more dancing around a lighthouse or funfair with a confused Twiggy for them.

Jettisoning valuable customers at this tumultuous time on the high street is, potentially, a very foolish thing to do. Meanwhile, doing nothing and hoping that your base market comes back time and time is lazy, so what should M&S do for the best?

Well, according to Hilary Roodyn, 75, who spoke at the M&S Annual Shareholders General Meeting, they have been "missing a trick" by focusing on the youngsters, which was elaborated by the woman who has the monopoly of TV's teeth, Esther Rantzen in today's Daily Mail who actually went to a Marks and Spencer store to generally have a bitchfit and pick it apart from the inside, saying:

"Yes, pander to the tastes of the teens and twentysomethings, if you must. But please include us oldies, too. Our taste is for elegance. We’ve become more stylish over the years, and much more discreet. We don’t flaunt our boobs and thighs like today’s ladettes. Think Chanel. Think sleeves, and hems at mid-knee (some of us still have lower legs we don’t mind showing off)."

Which is all well and good, I'm not going to argue with Esther Rantzen, she has a talking dog on her side, but she isn't looking at the bigger picture, she just wants clothes that she wants without thinking of the fact that eventually she'll be making us of a Tena Lady between Deal or No Deal and Coach Trip - and where will Marks and Spencer be then?

No one can sustain a business that goes from strength and strength each year on just one type of customer; it's unfeasible. It would make them unique, but limited, which isn't going to work. If that business plan worked then everyone would be doing it, and the only business that I can think of that specifies the age of the customer is Bon Marché, and that's just a mess wrapped within a disaster waiting to happen.

Marks and Spencer shouldn't be ditching the young'uns, they should be embracing them with a job-saving gusto, keep Twiggy, Minogue, the whole lot and just make definite distinctions for each age, maybe get Fearne Cotton involved- oh no, they want to save jobs, don't they?