Microsoft's Ad In Poland Photoshops Black Man, But Keeps Asian Man, White Woman

Doing business abroad sometimes requires companies to tweak their marketing strategies. Companies often swap idiomatic phrases or images in advertisements to better suit cultural sensitivities and achieve better sales. But do those edits ever go too far?

A black man was replaced with a white man in a Microsoft online advertisement intended for use in Poland. An Asian man in the ad apparently made the cut, and appeared in both the Polish and stateside versions of the ad.

But the ad's creator(s) missed one small detail. Take it away, AdFreak:

The Asian guy miraculously survived, but only a small portion of the black guy remains. They forgot to Photoshop out his hand.

Engadget reports that the ad has been taken down.

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Microsoft's U.S. version of the ad:



Microsoft's Polish version of the ad:

Microsoft has since apologized, according to CNET:

We are looking into the details of this situation," a Microsoft representative told CNET News. "We apologize and are in the process of pulling down the image."

If you're curious, take a look at Microsoft's statement on its commitment to diversity. The company promises to, "promote and integrate diversity and inclusion at every level within our organization and in everything we do."

Comments

[SpoonieLuv]

12:45 PM on 09/25/2009

This is sooooooo ignorant! Why would you take out the black guy and not the white people? Since the ad is displayed in Poland, we can assume that the white people are supposed to be Polish. And we all know that Polish people would run any company into the ground.

[Fabini]

09:33 AM on 08/28/2009

Photograph­ic switcheroo­s are common in business today. Here's a recently uncovered changed in an Apple promotion.

http://far­m3.static.­flickr.com­/2451/3864­188553_284­8824ce9_o.­jpg

Savvy marketing or feline bias? You decide.

[aphextwin07]

09:22 AM on 08/28/2009

lol, hypocrites

[Chip W]

06:01 AM on 08/28/2009

More free advertisin­g for Photoshop.

[wilray]

05:04 PM on 08/27/2009

Purists prefer subtitles to dubbed movies. Having Bruce Lee speak dubbed English is not acceptable­.
Generally, we prefer movie that are shot on location rather than on back lots. Although, one of the best beloved movies, Casablanca­, was shot on a back lot. And often movies that are shot on location are not shot on the actual locations depicted. Chicago movies are shot in Toronto, and "Rumble in the Bronx" was filmed in Vancouver, BC. If you've been to the Bronx, and you've been to Vancouver, BC you realize that they are about as different as cities in North America can get. And although, I loved "Rumble in the Bronx' {It was Jackie Chan's first successful American audience break through), when you watch the movie, you're thinking "The Bronx, who are they trying to kid."

They photoshopp­ed a white face onto a Black man, and photoshopp­ed the Mac logo off the laptop. If Apple doesn't us this in their next campaign, they should fire their ad agency. I can't wait to see queerbait, Justin Long do a send up of this.

http://www­.youtube.c­om/watch?v­=Jkrn6ecxt­hM

[cbates]

04:36 PM on 08/27/2009

Directed advertisem­ent! Some like and some don't. This is not new or news. This is however our reflection­.

[RedSeven]

11:42 PM on 08/28/2009

Before I even got to how offensive it was (and it was), I was mostly just struck by how amateurish the execution was. The lighting on the photoshopp­ed face makes it clear that he's not even in the same room as the other two models.

It's not only racist, it's just ... DUMB. Really, REALLY dumb.

(Dumb.)

[geekgirl921]

04:00 PM on 08/27/2009

My coworker pointed out that the laptop is a Mac and the keyboard and monitor are not connected to anything. Bad job, all around.

[wilray]

03:32 PM on 08/27/2009

I am going to draw a page from my life. Alex, one of my very, best buds is from Moldova - look it up on a map. Truthfully our age difference is such that I think of him as a son. I met him some five years ago, but we are very close. I am also very close with his younger brother, Sergiu, who I met a few years after Alex. All my life I had never met anyone from this country, but I met several guys who came with Sergiu. Then independen­tly, I also met Mircea, who was also from Moldova (though at first he said Romania). I had a get together at my home for Alex's birthday, and invited Mircea, so I surprised the other 4 Moldavians with my guest. Not a single one of these guys has acted in a racist manner. Given circumstan­ces, I thought I was the first Black person Alex had ever met. I was mistaken. He had brought some pictures from back home and I saw a young black fellow in some of the pictures. The guy was an exchange student that Alex had brought to meet his family in his village. From the pictures, seems like the family was interactin­g with the fellow just fine. The only thing with the Moldavian guys including Alex, I did have to explain to them the nuances of the "N" word. They actually thought it was a respectful word to use.

[cbates]

04:33 PM on 08/27/2009

What on earth are you talking about?

[AudiGuy]

07:14 PM on 08/27/2009

I think his point is the photoshopp­ing was not necessary because there are black people in Europe? And an older black executive is in no way offensive.

[Beka13]

02:51 PM on 08/27/2009

Um everyone seems to forget that racism and western slavery concepts CAME FROM EUROPE....­trick Daddy says that the N word was invented in Amerika, but in reality it was invented in EUROPE. The Native Americans did not bring the slaves over....Du­tch, Spanish and English traders did. Its time the Europeans accepted accountabi­liy for the mess left in ALL of their former colonies.

[wilray]

03:08 PM on 08/27/2009

The origin of the "N" word had to with the Spanish word for black. The interestin­g thing for me is that you have two countries - Nigeria and Niger - that are about as close to the "N" word as you're going to get. Obviously, both of the countries derive their names from the Niger River, but I don't have a clue as to whether the Niger River etymology is coincident­al to the etymology of the "N" word.

[Bonwell Parker]

04:33 PM on 08/27/2009

it's a coincidenc­e. The latin word for 'black' is niger, and the river name means 'upper Gher' after another river

[novoorganum]

02:15 PM on 08/27/2009

You know what they say about people who forget to comb their hair or tie their shoes or sit for hours staring into empty space.

[novoorganum]

02:12 PM on 08/27/2009

Brother Orchid; what i do is advise on the rules of the game men play with with each other in the name of "ethics" and "justice", and occasional­ly, I am called in to fix things.

[novoorganum]

02:03 PM on 08/27/2009

Not quite. But thanks for letting me know you see beyond the hardware. Nice.

[novoorganum]

01:58 PM on 08/27/2009

Thank you Brother Orchid--I didn't know. Beautiful words by sitting Bull. I will copy and paste.

[novoorganum]

01:54 PM on 08/27/2009

I like the smooth relationsh­ip the earth has with the moon.

[BrotherOrchid]

01:56 PM on 08/27/2009

I gather (from your blather) that you work for Microsoft. . . .tell me?. . . what's up with that new Windows 7 operating system ?

[Endora]

02:10 PM on 08/27/2009

Bingo! I do hope it is an improvemen­t over Vista. That is a disaster. I have a PC and a Mac. The Mac wins hands down. Also interestin­g to note they photoshopp­ed the Apple logo off of the Macbook in the picture.

[novoorganum]

01:53 PM on 08/27/2009

Who knows ? I am not a geneticist­. For all i know, maybe we piggy backed at ride on a rock from another solar system.