BBC urges Virgin Media to axe David Tennant advert

BBC Worldwide have been in contact with Virgin Media, urging the company to suspend an advert featuring David Tennant, according to The Mirror.

The campaign was launched last week and sees Tennant, Richard Branson and a capsule with a logo which reads 'Virgin Time Travel'.

Branson enters the machine and emerges younger. Fans have claimed that this is a potential reference to the TARDIS and the 2007 episode The Lazarus Experiment which sees a professor create a machine which makes him younger.

The Doctor Who logo is also shown on the TV screen.

The commercial arm of the BBC believe that Virgin are attempting to "cash in" on the success of Doctor Who.

BBC guidelines state:

“We should ensure that the BBC brand is not used to endorse outside companies or organisations.

"We can achieve this by ensuring commercial advertising, promotion and press releases by outside companies do not give the impression of BBC endorsement, and advertising does not “pass off” BBC programmes.”

However Virgin claims that the advert is based around Branson's facination of exploration.

A spokeswoman said: “Our new campaign explores some of the benefits of Virgin Media TiVo, including the ability to search for your favourite actor and discover TV programmes, films and YouTube content available live, on demand and as catch-up TV.”