One seven-second execution showed US president Bush receiving a gift of the video in the Oval Office. "My favourite," he says, "just pop it in the video player". He then slots the video into a toaster and burns it to a crisp. Another execution has footballer David Beckham asking his wife, "How do you spell DVD?".
In a written adjudication to '2DTV' producer Giles Pilbrow, the BACC said that the ads had contravened the advertising standards code of the Independent Television Commission under the section headed "protection of privacy and exploitation of the individual". It also said that "The portrayal of George W Bush in the commercial is offensive".
Speaking to the Daily Telegraph, Pilbrow said: "It's the most frustrating bureaucratic decision I've ever come across."
"I asked someone at the BACC if they would apply the code in the same way if we did a sketch about Saddam Hussein or Osama bin Laden," Pilbrow said. "He said, 'Absolutely'. The code says you have to seek authorisation. We would write Mr Bush a letter but he's a busy man. As for bin Laden, he's a little hard to track down at the moment."
The banning of the ad comes just a day after Francoise Ducros, an aide to Canadian prime minister, resigned after calling Bush a "moron" in front of reporters at a Nato summit in Prague last week.
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