After a wave of complaints, Microsoft has dropped a controversial online ad for its Internet Explorer web browser that featured a puking woman.

The adverts, which star Dean Cain, who played Superman in the 1990s TV series, shows a woman who discovers an offensive website on her husband's browser. The content makes her throw up three times and Cain suggests Internet Explorer's privacy options mean that users will never have to suffer from what he calls OMGIGP - "Oh My God, I'm Gonna Puke" syndrome - ever again.

All harmless enough in a college humour sort of way but apparently it has sent people reaching for sick buckets of their own, Redmond has been flooded by complaints, due to its graphic nature, and has pulled the advertisement. In a statement Microsoft said that while much of the feedback to this particular piece of creative was positive, “some of our customers found it offensive, so we have removed it.”