An advert starring Pamela Anderson has been banned from TV after showing the former Baywatch actress dancing in a bikini while covered in cream.

The one-minute commercial, for web-hosting firm Dreamscape Networks, prompted a barrage of complaints from furious viewers who accused the company of sexualising and degrading women.

In it the Barb Wire star plays a corporate boss chairing a meeting in a boardroom full of men.

While Anderson addresses the board, her assistant, Vanessa, pours cream into a cup of coffee while showing off her cleavage.

The revealing sight leads one of the men to fantasise about Anderson and her assistant dancing together in bikinis.

One angry viewer said: "They use this as a tv ad for web domain hosting? Seriously? This is professional for business? Are they really that desperate?"

Another said: "Those stupid barbarians have to stop with idiotic ads, we are not so silly to get messages like that, that contributes to sell the women like whores. The job should not have to do with sex and orgies. People and women want meritocracy, not to do sexual services! DUMB!

The Advertising Standards Authority(ASA) said although it understood that the ad was intended to be humorous and light-hearted, the fantasy scene, gave the impression that the man viewed his female colleagues as sexual objects.

"Because of that, we considered the ad was likely to cause serious offence to some viewers on the basis that it was sexist and degrading to women," a spokesperson for the ASA said.

Dreamscape Networks, however, has defended the ad, claiming the dream sequence was not "gratuitous or pornographic".

The firm argued that Anderson and her assistant were not portrayed as sex objects but as "attractive, dynamic and confident business people".

The advertising watchdog has now banned the commercial from appearing in its current form.