An advert showing a woman with a plastic bag over her head has been described as "irresponsible" by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).

The authority was deluged with complaints by people concerned that it might encourage children to copy the pose.

And it agreed on Wednesday that it did pose a potential risk of "emulation".

However, it rejected other complaints about the "distressing" nature of the image.

The advert from the British Heart Foundation (BHF) aimed to show what it is like to live with heart failure.

Alongside the picture of a middle-aged woman with a plastic bag over her head, the ad read "I've got heart failure. And this is what it feels like every morning".

The advert appeared in national newspapers earlier this month, and was aimed at over-45s.

The Director General of the ASA, Christopher Graham, said that the 12-strong council had decided the ad was "irresponsible".

"We actually had 238 complaints within a week, but that's not the issue.

"The issue is whether you are going to get emulation - you can't really take risks about that."

'Unfortunate'

The BHF said it consulted the Committee for Advertising Practice, the official body which pre-checks ads, about the advert.

The issue is whether you are going to get emulation - you can't really take risks about that

Christopher Graham, ASA

It said it also checked the wording of the warning which appears on the ad with the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA).

However RoSPA said it was not asked to clear the advert - and would not have done so.

A RoSPA spokesman told BBC News Online last week that it had received numerous calls complaining about the advert: "We think it is unfortunate that the BHF used such an image to make their point.

"We haven't seen the advert, and we haven't been asked to clear it.

"If we had been consulted, we would have done our best to dissuade them from using it."

He added: "We hope that parents would be careful not to leave the ad lying around where impressionable children might see it and be tempted to copy it."

'Powerful image'

But the BHF staunchly defended its decision to use the plastic bag image, although there had been no plans to repeat the campaign is not going to be repeated.

Betty McBride, director of marketing and communication for the BHF, told the BBC that 2,000 people a day had contacted the organisation for advice on heart failure - which affects around 830,000 people in the UK - as a result of the ad.

She said: "The advert was designed to make people stop and think about something that we could call a hidden and silent condition.

"We understand that the image is powerful, but the reality is that people are suffering from a distressing condition that takes their breath away."

"If the CAP had advised us not to run it, we would have followed their advice."