A banned television advertisement showing matadors killing bulls to the bellowing of dying animals has drawn President Sarkozy into a celebrity-fuelled row about French heritage.

The commercial calls for an end to bullfighting, a pastime that is enjoying a boom and boosting the economy in south and southwest France. But it has been rejected three times by the French advertising watchdog because its footage is too shocking and may threaten commercial interests.

French and foreign celebrities have urged Mr Sarkozy to overrule the ban, invoking free speech and the history of civil rights in France. However, emotions are running high on both sides and the critics are vehemently opposed by aficionados who see la tauromachie as their heritage, and whom Mr Sarkozy is reluctant to upset.

The appeal to the President has been signed by Jean-Claude Van Damme, the film actor, Twiggy, the former model, and others as part of a barrage of protest against the public killing of bulls. Its timing comes as the season of southern corridas reaches its peak. Hundreds of thousands have flocked this summer to 60 rings from Nîmes to Bayonne, drawn in part by the star power of Sébastien Castella, 24, the first French matador to be ranked No 1 in Spain.

The contested advert shows monochrome glimpses of matadors killing bulls to the soundtrack of dying animals. A voiceover by Renaud, a veteran French rock-folk star, says that humanity should no longer tolerate “torture and death as entertainment”. He adds: “Join the struggle for civilisation.” The advert was rejected last week for the third time by the Bureau of Advertising Standards (BVP). It said that the latest, softened, version of the clip, produced by the Society for the Protection of Animals (SPA) and two anticorrida groups, remained too disturbing.

The objectors said that they were “deeply shocked by this censorship”. They added: “How is it possible, in the country of the Rights of Man, to gag groups which represent the view of the 80 per cent of France which is opposed to bullfighting?” The SPA said it was absurd that sports television broadcast the full gore from the bullring yet the advert was banned.

Mr Sarkozy refused to intervene and his staff noted that the sport would be considered under a broad consultation on environmental policy in the autumn.

The campaigners want to embarrass the State into ending an exception that was made 80 years ago to anti-cruelty laws that allowed bullfighting to continue in its traditional areas.

Corridas are estimated to earn €100 million (£60 million) a year. The President, although a born-and-bred Parisian, likes to display his fondness for the virile bloodsport. He has appeared at bullfights and staged a campaign appearance last April astride a horse on a Camargue fighting-bull farm.

François Fillon, the Prime Minister, also attends the corrida. But pressure from Brigitte Bardot and other campaigners this week forced Roselyne Bachelot, the Minister for Health and Sports, to cancel a planned appearance at a fight in Bayonne. In a vitriolic open letter, Ms Bardot said that Ms Bachelot, as a woman and health minister, should be ashamed to associate herself with “this sadistic spectacle staged for the pleasure of perverts”.

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