Marks and Spencer's website 'rude message' gaffe was an accident, retailer insists

The appearance of an explicit message among the Christmas decorations on Marks and Spencer’s website was entirely accidental, the retailer has insisted.

Anyone browsing for Red Glitter letters last night who sorted them by price was confronted with the letters F, C, and K on one line, and M and E on the next. The U hovers just above the arrangement.

The embarrassing gaffe went viral on Twitter.

But the chain today moved to assure shoppers it had fixed the problem and denied the explicit message had been intentional.

“This was due to the algorithms used to display products on our website,” said a spokeswoman. “It was quickly spotted and corrected.”

It is understood products are not uploaded manually to the website, but that the page is populated directly from a database by a computer.

Shoppers were amused by the unfortunate lettering arrangement.

MM ‏(@ReVampedMe) tweeted: “We were looking through the @marksandspencer #3for2 Christmas items..those #followthefairies have gotten naughty.”

Anneke Moxon (@AnnekeMox) added: “Hey guys thanks for having a hilarious web design team!!”