By Les Roopanarine Published: 06:03 EDT, 18 October 2024 | Updated: 06:16 EDT, 18 October 2024
Beautiful Georgian architecture, a sunny urban park, ritzy interiors – if it all sounds far removed from the more prosaic realities of Milton Keynes, it’s because a new advert promoting the city as a go-to retail destination quite literally is, having been shot more than 350 miles away.Spurning the endless roundabouts and concrete cows widely regarded by non-residents as the Buckinghamshire city’s signature features, the promo’s crew instead headed six hours north to Glasgow.The 40-second video shows stylish models sashaying the streets in the latest couture, with nary a glass-fronted shopping centre or a broad concrete road in sight.The more stately architecture of Glasgow’s John Street and the terraced townhouses of Blythswood Square form the preferred backdrop, providing an emphasis on the historic that seems strangely at odds with Milton Keynes’ more modernist roots.While the roundabout portrayal of the city seems likely to leave locals unimpressed, Centre:MK, the retail outlet behind the campaign, said the advert was about the clothes and lifestyle depicted rather than the chosen locale.‘Our TV ad was not shot in Milton Keynes,’ conceded a spokesperson for the shopping centre. A smartly dressed model exudes chic as she makes her way down St John Street in Glasgow – more than 350 miles north of Milton Keynes A new advert for Centre:MK, a shopping mall in Milton Keynes, shows a pair of models strolling the streets… of Blythswood Square in Glasgow ‘It wasn’t supposed to represent a specific location, it’s designed to show how the trends and outfits could be worn in your everyday life, whether out with friends in the daytime or going out for the evening.‘It was supposed to be about the fashion itself rather than the location it was shot, which is just a backdrop to the models and the outfits they are wearing.‘Our visitors come to Centre:MK from miles around, from as far as Birmingham, Cambridge, Oxford, St Albans and even London, as we are a regional destination.’So the ad was more of a lifestyle ad to showcase the clothes, all of which are available at the shops in Centre:MK.‘The last frame of the ad gives the shops we featured and our location, off junction 14 of the M1.’Not everyone seems convinced, however. One viewer of the video, which is available on YouTube, observed: ‘[It] would have been better if you had filmed it in MK.’
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New TV advert trying to make Milton Keynes like stylish shopping hub has major flaw… it was filmed nearly 400 miles away