Until a British couple were revealed to have "bought" two babies over the internet, the idea of auctioning children would have seemed fanciful, but unlikely.

Now, such has been the hostile reaction to the Kilshaw case, the Institute of Contemporary Arts has dropped an expensive advertising campaign depicting a spoof baby auction after fears it would be accused of cashing in.

The ICA expressed disappointment yesterday. Its director said that British culture was "over-sensitive", and the British were "not very good at taking wit". But it acknowledged that the series would have opened it up to accusations of tastelessness. If the ICA had not pulled the plug, cinema regulators would probably have blocked it anyway, given the current mood.

In the proposed series of films, which was due to be shown in cinemas around the country, babies would have been shown alongside on-screen reference numbers, with a voice-over encouraging viewers to bid. In one film, the final baby knocks over a beaker of water, which "scatters to create an amazing, artistic image on the stark floor", and a caption is flashed up: "Beat the ICA to the next great thing".

The ICA was initially enthusiastic about the campaign, which was developed by the London-based agency HHCL and Partners before the internet baby scandal broke.

Philip Dodd, the director of the ICA, said HHCL had suggested using a baby auction because of its provocative nature. At the end of the film, it would have been clear that it was the art, not the babies, that was for sale.

"When this [the internet babies] blew up the problem for us was that we would have looked reactive rather than proactive. To come out with something like this, we would have seemed exploitative," said Mr Dodd.

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