Irvine sued talkSPORT, the radio station controlled by Kelvin MacKenzie's Wireless Group, over a leaflet sent to almost 1,000 potential advertisers showing a doctored picture of Irvine speaking into a mobile phone to make it look as if he was listening to the station's programmes on a radio.
The ruling gives legal backing to the argument that using a famous person in an ad without their consent amounts to "passing off
under English law.
Marina Palomba, the IPA's legal affairs director, said: "We're warning agencies that they must be very careful because this case makes the use of celebrities more restrictive."
She added: "If an ad contains an obvious implication that there is a connection between the product and a celebrity - and that celebrity's consent has not been obtained - then advertisers could be in legal trouble."
Until now, advertisers have been protected by a 1947 court case in which the children's radio presenter Derek McCollouch failed in his action against a cereal company for making references to him in ads. But last week, Mr Justice Laddie ruled that Irvine "has a property right in his goodwill which he can protect from unlicensed appropriation consisting of a false claim or suggestion of endorsement of a third-party's goods or business".
Legal experts believe agencies will now have to take extreme care, even if a celebrity is featured only in the background of a print ad or is mentioned only briefly in a radio commercial.
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