Microsoft Edits Black Man Out of Photo, Apologizes – FOXNews.com — This is too funny. But there is no real explanation for this gaffe.
Software giant Microsoft Corp. is apologizing for altering a photo on its Web site to change the race of one of the people shown in the picture.A photo on the Seattle-based company’s U.S. Web site shows two men, one Asian and one black, and a white woman seated at a conference room table. But on the Web site of Microsoft’s Polish business unit, the black man’s head has been replaced with that of a white man. The color of his hand remains unchanged.
“But there is no real explanation for this gaffe.” Poland John. Poland.
They’re sorry they got caught I’ll bet. Microsoft marketing and PR machine does it again. There more clowns down there than Cirque du Soleil.
Good lord, Ted Kennnedy is dead.
#3 – Hugh Ripper
Let’s replace the white guy’s head with Ted’s.
Now that’s just messed up.
They should have used Photoshop not MS Paint…look at what a horrible job they did. His head placement looks way off.
By the way, is that Alan Colmes’ head?
They’ve fixed it on the live sites now… however the Aussie version is still showing a localised photo-chop:
Slow news day ?
@ TooManyPuppies
What is that you trying to insinuate? Please do explain.
# 8 MPL
Presumably the insinuation is that Polish people either do not relate to black people or do not like them.
# 1 TooManyPuppies
Correct me if I am in error.
The one on the left is totally shopped. I can tell by the pixels, and by seeing a few shops in my day.
My guess is that version with the white guy is the original and they had to shop the black guy in for photo to pass muster in the U.S.
both heads look wrong if you look at it right.. MS is just so lame some times
CC
Kinda looks like Mitt Romney…
They’ve been commenting on it on the photoshop disasters blog.
most likely a young marketing person, though who knows.
Take a look at the hand. It looks like the black man has a white skin glove.
Is this a Polish joke?
It’s not really surprising.
It’s quite unusual to meet black person in Poland, so having one on ads is also quite unusual.
It’s like shouting, hey we’re foreigners. We make software possibly in language you will not understand.
You could call it l10n.
“Empower your people with the IT tools they need.” /// Ha, Ha. FTC should charge MS with systematic racial discrimination/Hostile Environment and require them to advertise: “Empower your people with Basic Human Rights and Dignity.”
So happy to be White, and yet the world still sucks. Down stream pollution only gets worse.
I don’t care who you are – that’s funny.
Anatoly? So they still have “women-Polish”? It’s a thick wax and I do love polishing my women!
How many africans aRE IN POLAND?
– who cares?
– why apologize? what is offensive about marketing to your target audience?
– who are they apologizing to? The European Americans or the African Americans?
Much ado about something that people with too much time on their hands feel a need to whine about.
My condolences to the Kennedy family and the people of the United States. We have lost a great patriot.
Wait, this story can’t be true. Sean Hannity told me there is no racism anymore.
Microsoft clearly thought it was prudent and ethical to cater to Eastern European racism. Here are just a few comments I found on a Pravda forum:
“Something interesting i see develping in Poland… NATO is wanting a Base there, and everytime i fly through Warsaw, I see many american blacks …Upon further research, I discovered that the USA is in a process of propagandizing the polish people to accept these large numbers of these people, in preparation of a NATO base..
They are using USA funded entertainment, and cultural programs , RAP MUSIC entertainers, Basketball atheletes, to desensitize the Poles to large numbers of american black and ethnic walking the streets of warsaw, presumably so there will not be public outcry…
Too bad for the country of Poland…Shall we call it the Little detroit of East Europe..?”
“Yeah, Americans want to export their problems to East Europe, so we could all enjoy their freedom. They call it democracy. The problem is that they’ve already brainwashed their own population with their stories of tolerance…
They remind me of some kind of virus that gets in, destroy resources and then move on. I think that east Europe don’t need such help. Unfortunately, since Poland needs money and time to stand on its own feet, people will have to cope with American zoo,
unless they send them a message thah they are not welcome(as in Japan after rape of Japanese school girl by three black American soldiers)”
(I love that last one: ‘Those negroes will destroy the economic development that we have been unable to achieve!)
“Keep the junglebunny’s out of Poland, the Polish are a very nationalistic and patriotic people, America just wants to brainwash young Poles with crap like MTV, rap and hip hop. I don’t want to see young Polich boys turning into wiggers, and I don’t want to see Negroes flirting with Polish women at bars, and going to dance clubs where they will systematically hit on every single young Polish girl in sight.”
But wait, how can these statements have been made? Conservatives have assured me there is no racism anymore…!”
#26, Mr. Gnu,
Interesting piece.
My first wife, who was Ukrainian, was fond of remarking that when a Pole got a $10 haircut, it was $2.50 a side. The Ukraine used to be a Polish province.
I guess the writer preferred the Soviet occupation to American cooperation.
How many white people are in the MS ads in Nigeria?
The folks at Slashdot talk about this one. They say that Poland is 99.9% white. They also say that in Italy blonds are edited out for the same basic reason — so the locals can relate to the pictures better.
It’s about “attractivism” not “racism”, duh. And excuse me, Poland is mostly white. Why aren’t people getting pissed off when they do this same thing to an ad in a ghetto. They chop off the heads of the white folk and paste on a black dude that can sell Colt 45 a helluva lot better than any white dude could.
OK, targeting your intended audience is fine; photohop’ing a photo like this is not. Why? Because it’s just wrong to chop people up like this for commercial gain, no matter what their colour. Microsoft, don’t be so cheap: take a new photo for each target audience. In fact, if you’re targeting Polish people, have a photo taken in Poland — what a concept — truth in advertising.