A deodorant company has taken corrective measures after imaginary angels it used in an advert offended a Christian viewer.

"We have... made sure the seriousness of the matter is understood by our angels," Axe South Africa said in a statement on Thursday.

The advert showed (female) angels falling from heaven then following and sniffing a man wearing the company's fragrance.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) instructed the company earlier this month to pull the ad.

"The problem is not so much that angels are used in the commercial, but rather that the angels are seen to forfeit, or perhaps forego their heavenly status for mortal desires," it said in its ruling.

"This is something that would likely offend Christians in the same manner as it offended the complainant."

The company accepted the ruling, saying its angels would "from now on try their very best to resist the seductive powers of the Axe effect". Axe apologised to viewers who were offended. It added that men insisting on using the fragrance did so at their own risk.

"Those who are continuing to use Axe Excite in the hope of seducing angels, please note -- whilst there is no individual danger of disciplinary action from the ASA, the angels have been known to come in at quite a speed, and the use of Axe excite is completely at your own risk."