An advert for the Subway sandwich chain which was filmed at Sheppey’s nudist beach has caused outrage over the estuary.

The advert is to promote the firm’s new range of Winter Warmer sandwiches and was filmed at the end of August at Shellness beach in Leysdown.

Although filmed here on the Island, it is passed off as being Frinton-on-Sea in Essex.

In the advert, a bedraggled man washes up on a bleak beach clinging on to a swan-shaped fairground pedalo.

Two people come to the lost traveller’s aid and he asks them if he is dead.

They reply: “No, you’re in Frinton-on-Sea.”

A voice-over suggests the man had hired “the only pedalo in Corfu without steering” and that a Subway sandwich would warm him up.

A spokesman for Subway said the idea behind the advert was to set a scene of a shipwrecked character craving some warm comforting food.

But, according to an Essex newspaper’s website, residents are less than impressed with the advert.

A Frinton councillor and former mayor criticised Subway saying it had got the portrayal of the town wrong and that the first thing local residents would notice was that it is a shingle beach in the advert.

The spokesman said the location was chosen because it was quiet and neutral and didn’t have any distinguishing landmarks, although halfway through filming the crew discovered how near they were to the nudist section of the beach.

According to the spokesman, the weather was quite changeable on the day of filming.

The miserable feel of the advert was achieved by a creative team who had a long wait for clouds to gather.

They also had some extra help from a rain machine to generate the right effect, and more rain and cloud was added in post production.

The spokesman added: “The Subway chain’s latest TV advertisement takes a light-hearted view of a 'lost pedalo’ landing on a beach in Frinton-on-Sea.

“The advertisement was deliberately filmed on a cloudy, windy and wet day to add to the humour and incongruity of the situation.

“The advertisement was filmed on a beach on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent.

“Creative licence was used in the script to name this as Frinton-on-Sea, which it was felt was a more well-known and quintessentially English beachside resort.”

• We’ve been talking about other movies that could be remade at Shellness. We’ve come up with: The Longest Day; The Beach; Splash; (Sheppey) Pirates of the Caribbean; and Free Willy

Let us know your nominations by writing to Times Guardian, 44 High Street, Sheerness ME12 1NL or email timesguardian@thekmgroup.co.uk