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I think that there is something offensive here, and it is not the black being replaced with white head. Cultural sensitivities are real. There are not black people on billboards or ads in China, because there are very few people representing that minority there, so it is not a useful selling tool. It is a purely business and economic decision. What will help me sell 'X' best?
What does offend me, is the crappy photoshop job done. It is obvious that the head was forced onto that neckline. Also it is just lazy to leave a black hand with a white head. I have photoshopped a little in my time and think I could do a much better job in 30 minutes MAX. This is just lazy, not racist.
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I'd be suprised if they've got enough african diasporates to count on one set of fingers and toes, and like all marketing concerns, they would be wanting to regionalize the advertising to the target consuming market as much as possible.
It's not just because there's so few african-descended buyers living there... it's because africans are so few and far between in Poland that the consumer might get a subconscious feeling of, "Okay, so new-world or middle-eastern or south-africanites might use it, but what's it got to do with me?"
In any case, they put it back, and probably quite joyfully so, because they would have got way more free product-awareness from news-media hype about the issue than they ever could have bought.
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Anyway, it's certainly not racism in the sense that a black was being erased from the photo because the company doesn't like blacks. He got put in to diversify for the American market but wasn't needed in Poland. In Poland, the oriental guy was probably plenty.
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M$2.25
August 26, 2009 04:05 PM
Photoshop Disasters: Microsoft Poland replaces black guy with white guy. Was this racially motivated?
Some are complaining that this was a 'racially charged' image manipulation. Do you think it was racist or a regional decision? How many black people live in Poland anyway? Microsoft has apologized and removed the image. 
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| August 26, 2009 06:22 PM |
What does offend me, is the crappy photoshop job done. It is obvious that the head was forced onto that neckline. Also it is just lazy to leave a black hand with a white head. I have photoshopped a little in my time and think I could do a much better job in 30 minutes MAX. This is just lazy, not racist.
Thanks
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August 26, 2009 04:39 PM
Naa... it wasn't overtly racist per se... not for Poles. Racism in Poland consists of hating those blondie prussaic Germans. I'd be suprised if they've got enough african diasporates to count on one set of fingers and toes, and like all marketing concerns, they would be wanting to regionalize the advertising to the target consuming market as much as possible.
It's not just because there's so few african-descended buyers living there... it's because africans are so few and far between in Poland that the consumer might get a subconscious feeling of, "Okay, so new-world or middle-eastern or south-africanites might use it, but what's it got to do with me?"
In any case, they put it back, and probably quite joyfully so, because they would have got way more free product-awareness from news-media hype about the issue than they ever could have bought.
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August 26, 2009 05:14 PM
What's racist, in a well meaning sort of way, is that so many of the these ads from all companies put in one white, one black, and one oriental. Even relatively diverse America isn't 33 1/3 % of each. Poland is far less diverse, so they tried to look a little less diverse to match. Odd that they thought no one would notice the hand. Marketing usually tries to match the race of the target audience with the characters in their ads unless they are boasting about the national character of their product. It's really noticeable in billboards, where the smiling faces usually match even smaller neighborhoods. Anyway, it's certainly not racism in the sense that a black was being erased from the photo because the company doesn't like blacks. He got put in to diversify for the American market but wasn't needed in Poland. In Poland, the oriental guy was probably plenty.
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