Shoppers lured to mega-mall by a £6million flight of fancy

RECESSION? What recession? A huge advertising blitz is being launched across the capital to persuade Londoners to shop till they drop at the £1.56billion Westfield shopping centre, which opens next Thursday.

A glossy TV and cinema commercial, screened for the first time this week, is the centrepiece of a £6million multi-media ad campaign to mark the launch of the giant mall in Shepherd's Bush.

The commercial, with the slogan Shopping In A New Light, features a beautiful woman as one of many chic Londoners who are transformed into moths and drawn to the development as insects are to a flame.

The advert will be followed by posters on hoardings, buses and taxis, and space taken in newspapers and online, all on the same theme.

It is the most expensive promotion of a British shopping centre ever. The budget for publicising Bluewater in Kent was between £3million and £4million, split between a launch in March 1999 and a pre-Christmas boost.

Other stunts being planned for Westfield include a series of projections onto London buildings and the release of 10,000 balloons in and around Oxford Street.

At least 20 billboard sites have been booked as part of a campaign that will continue until Christmas. The agency behind the commercial, Adam and Eve, said the aim was to convey Westfield as "a beacon of light" for Londoners who loved shopping and fashion.

Australian company the Westfield Group is determined to attract pre-Christmas shoppers to its complex and keep them for New Year when the effects of the economic downturn may be harsher.

Westfield will be the third biggest shopping centre in Britain after Bluewater and Tyneside's MetroCentre. Stores will include high street names such as Marks and Spencer and House of Fraser, and an area called The Village, which will host designer brands like Louis Vuitton, Mulberry, Calvin Klein and Tiffany. There will be a multiplex cinema and places to eat and drink. Nicky Fuller, Westfield London marketing general manager, said: "This is an epic new shopping experience and the launch creative captures that in a truly seductive way."

Westfield is planning a similar development at Stratford, designed to open in time for the 2012 Olympics.