A Microsoft blunder has resulted in the software giant apologizing to the public.
The head of a black man in a Microsoft advertisement was replaced with that of a Caucasian man.
Using photo-manipulation tools, Microsoft’s marketing employees made the change to reach out to customers in Poland, who are predominantly white, some observers are speculating.
The advertisement is of three individuals sitting around a conference table in what looks to be an office in a high-rise. The individuals all have smiles on their faces and are in a meeting or watching a presentation.
The advertisement reads: “Empower Your People With the IT Tools They Need.”
In the English version of the ad, the individuals are a black man, a white woman, and an Asian man. In the version written in Polish, everything is the same except for the black man’s head, which was replaced by a white man’s head.
Some people are speculating that the change was made because of Poland’s white population, while others have pointed out that the Asian man was not altered for the advertisement used in Poland.
In a nation where being politically correct is necessary, moves such as Microsoft’s can be considered off-color and even racist. In this case, however, Microsoft’s marketing team appears to have been targeting a specific audience.
“It’s a poor job, obviously,” a poster named Spizak wrote on the Photoshop Disasters blog. “Someone made a poor decision — but I wouldn’t go as far as racism as from a marketing decision I understand the reason — you cater to a 99.9 percent white country — this image looks foreign in the sense that people wouldn’t connect with the ad.”
“We have this PC nonsense all the time in the U.K. where adverts are carefully made to ensure no ethnic group is offended,” a poster named…