More than 100 viewers complained about the advertisement in which Nicholas Lyndhurst plays a obese couple, wearing Newcastle United football shirts, struggling to get up from their sofa.
The northern stereotype is accentuated by condescending southern relatives -- also played by Lyndhurst -- who ask if the Geordies are practising a new dance.
Complainants accused WH Smith of giving a "patronising and harmful" stereotype of Newcastle and overweight people.
The ITC conceded the stereotype was "exaggerated and fictitious" but decided it was "within the bounds of acceptable humour and unlikely to cause widespread offence among people from Newcastle". It also deemed the ad would not lead to the mocking of Newcastle-born children elsewhere in the UK.
WH Smith has apologised to any viewer offended by the ad.
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