Microsoft pulls vomiting IE8 ad

An Internet Explorer 8 ad featuring a woman vomiting on her husband will no longer be part of Microsoft’s marketing campaign.

The online ad, titled "OMGIGP," (which stands for Oh My God I’m Gonna Puke) showed a woman losing her breakfast after seeing something unsightly (i.e. porn) in her husband’s Web browser. This advertises the "InPrivate" feature of IE8 that allows users to browse the Internet without creating a history.

The ad also features Dean Cain, best known for playing Superman in the television series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, and is one of several IE8 commercials that show people getting into computer-related predicaments.

But it seems the OMGIGP ad went too far. "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," a spokeswoman told the Wall Street Journal.

One of the most vocal critics was Harry McCracken at Technologizer (Disclosure: I write there as well), who called the ad the worst tech commercial he’d ever seen. Not sure I’d go that far, because I get what Microsoft was trying to do, however gross the ad was. As the spokeswoman told the journal, the ad was "a tongue-in-cheek look" at why someone might be compelled to use private browsing.

Besides, Microsoft tends to be perceived as a cold, corporate entity. I can’t fault the company for trying to break out of its shell, even if it made a poor choice with an offensive Web ad.