Actor Scott Patey stands between two actors playing police officers during a break in the filming of some ICBC commercials that will never be aired. (CBC)

B.C.'s former solicitor general killed a $1.7 million television advertising campaign for the province's publicly funded insurance corporation, apparently because it was deemed too raunchy and demeaning to police, CBC News has learned.

The Insurance Corporation of British Columbia commercials were aimed at the 19-to-25 age group and featured scenarios in which young men were found in embarrassing situations interrupted by police officers.

The ads ended with an announcer voice-over saying, "Some things you don't want to get caught doing, like drink and drive."

Then-solicitor general Kash Heed ordered the campaign killed in June 2009 as soon as he saw one of the commercials air, CBC News has learned. Heed, now a backbench B.C. Liberal MLA, did not respond Thursday to requests for comment on the decision.

'We were hopeful it would work out, and the fact is it didn't'—ICBC spokesman Nicholas Jimenez

The ad that reportedly upset Heed showed a lone teenage male in a locker room furtively using a tape measure, with the implication that he was measuring the length of his body parts.

The campaign was dubbed Whoop-Whoop by the Vancouver producers, Wasserman and Partners Advertising. The ads also featured a companion website at whoopwhoop.ca and a dedicated Facebook page, both of which have since been taken down.

Age group hard to reach

The age group targeted by the campaign is particularly hard to reach, according to ICBC spokesman Nicholas Jimenez.

"We had to take a risk," Jimenez said. "We were hopeful it would work out, and the fact is it didn't, and that's really unfortunate."

Another commercial in the campaign, which was never broadcast, showed a teenage male who receives a penis pump in the mail and is then interrupted with the device by his mother and two police officers.

Burnaby, B.C., actor Scott Patey, who played the teen who gets the mailed package, said he knew the commercial was pushing the boundaries, but said he understood the producers' intentions.

"It was kind of that shock value that stands out in your mind, and you remember it," said Patey. "I assumed they were going to air it after 9 p.m."

While he defends the motivation that inspired the commercials, Jimenez does not dispute the decision to abandon the campaign.

"I think we made the right decision in the end, because if controversy overshadows the message, then where are you?" he said.

With files from the CBC's Eric Rankin