He's Britain's most famous nodding dog.

But experts have warned against using the likes of English Bulldogs – as featured in Churchill insurance adverts – to promote products.

An international animal welfare group have called for an end to the use of dogs with extreme body shapes in adverts and social media due to their health issues.

Breeds also include Dachshunds – like the one which features in Vitality insurance adverts – and Pugs and French bulldogs, which are also regularly used in promotional videos.

The International Collaborative on Extreme Conformations in Dogs (ICECDogs) say extreme conformation refers to when the physical appearance of a dog has been so significantly altered through breeding that the animals commonly suffer from poor health and welfare.

Their newly-published guidance calls on all advertisers and users of social media worldwide to immediately stop using images of dogs with extreme conformation in public communications unless these images are aimed at protecting canine health and wellbeing.

Instead, they recommend that advertisers focus on using images that promote physically healthy conformations in dogs.

Common examples of health and welfare issues linked to extreme body shapes include chronic pain, for example eye ulcers due to protruding eyes, or physical incapacity such as being unable to sleep or exercise fully due to breathing difficulties from being flat-faced.

Dr Dan O'Neill, from the Royal Veterinary College in London, is one of the founding members of ICECDogs.

He said: 'Millions of dogs continue to suffer worldwide every year from extreme and unnecessary body shapes.

'This new ICECDogs message calls on advertisers to play their part in ending the normalisation of suffering from extreme body shapes and will hopefully contribute to the ongoing worldwide movement to instead celebrate healthy body shapes in dogs.'

Despite growing concerns about health issues linked to certain breeds, over the past decade more and more owners are choosing to acquire dogs with extreme conformations, the group said.

These include excessive skin folds, short tails, short legs, a bulging or domed skull, eyelids turned in or out and flat faces.

Data suggests there were more than half a million French Bulldogs and a quarter of a million Miniature Dachshunds owned in the UK in 2023, along with more than 180,000 Pugs and 130,000 English Bulldogs.

Much of this increased demand is believed to result from the regularly use of images of dogs with extreme conformations as promotional aids in advertising and social media.

The guidelines read: 'Images of dogs with extreme conformation are often selected for promotional materials to elicit 'cute', 'adorable' or even shock reactions.

'However, sharing such images is recognised to drive up demand for dogs with innately unhealthy body shapes and therefore harms animal welfare.

'Decreasing habitual public exposure to imagery of dogs with extreme conformations is critical to prevent further normalisations of innately unhealthy body shapes in dogs.

'Anyone sharing imagery of dogs must consider their ethical responsibilities as influencers in shaping public perceptions.'

Commenting on the guidelines a spokesman from Churchill said: 'The computer-generated 'Churchie', created for our current advertising campaign, is an imaginary CGI character.'