A women's group criticized an internet ad featuring Montreal Canadiens forward Georges Laraque. (YouTube)

Montreal Canadiens forward Georges Laraque has apologized for appearing in an internet commercial that a women's rights group says sends the wrong message about women.

The video features a group of scantily clad women jogging down the street. Laraque appears with cans of a drink he's promoting. He sets the cans up as goal posts for an impromptu game of road hockey with the women.

The women "don't even talk. All they're showing is a certain part of their body. The camera, the eye, is focusing on certain parts of the body," said Chantal Ismé, a co-ordinator with CLES, a group that fights sexual exploitation.

She said the sexist ad portrays women more as merchandise than players in a road-hockey game.

Ismé said Laraque falls into the trap of sexual exploitation by taking part in such an ad.

Laraque said Tuesday that he had no idea what the ad would look like when it was shot, and that he uses the money he makes from such ads to support various charities.

He said he'd re-think appearing in this type of commercial again.

"Obviously it's not something that I would do in the future, and I'm deeply sorry that I upset people. But everybody that knows me as a person knows the type of person that I am. Everywhere that I've ever played I've supported many charities, and I do every year," he said.

Laraque is also being criticized because the beverage mixes an energy drink with alcohol — a blend that alcohol awareness groups have called dangerous because energy beverages can make drinkers less aware of the effects of alcohol on their bodies.

Nicolas Gagon-Oosterwaal, the president of Blue Spike — the company that manufactures Octane 7.0, which Laraque was promoting — defended both the ad and the product.

The ad is geared mainly toward male adults, Gagnon-Oosterwaal said.

He said the drink contains a natural form of caffeine and no ingredients that are prohibited in Canada.

With files from The Canadian Press