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LONDON (Reuters) - British advertising watchdogs said on Thursday they had banned an advert for Microsoft's Xbox games console, which urged people to get more fun out of life but had been widely misinterpreted.

The Independent Television Commission (ITC) said the advert had prompted 136 complaints with its portrayal of a baby boy being born before fast-forwarding through adult life and slamming into the grave.

The advert was particularly offensive to those suffering a severe illness and mothers who had just lost a child, it said.

Microsoft said while intended as a "positive life statement," the advert would be pulled. Xbox is currently in a three-way battle with Nintendo's GameCube and Sony's Play Station 2.

"The Xbox philosophy is that we need to find more opportunities in daily life to play," said a Microsoft spokeswoman. "The advert was supposed to symbolize that life is short and life is precious."

The ITC said that while several viewers had been shocked by the childbirth scene, more had been shocked by the death scene, some of them recently bereaved.

"Many viewers, including some who had had a major illness, considered the end-line 'Life is short. Play more', when combined with the imagery, to be especially insensitive," said a statement.

"One viewer who had lost a child during childbirth found the advertisement to be an upsetting reminder of her own experience," it added.

The advert, made by London agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty, had been run in tandem with another portraying mosquitoes singing and playing to the rhythm of dance music before going off to work and drinking blood.

Source: Reuters