Microsoft Apologizes For Photoshop Debacle

H

HardOCP News

[H] News
Joined
Dec 31, 1969
Messages
0
Microsoft has apologized for that image that was Photoshopped by someone in their Polish marketing department and used on the company website. You can see the original images here.

Marketing site photo mistake - sincere apologies - we're in the process of taking down the image.
Click to expand...
 
Yeah I saw this earlier this morning. The reasoning being kicked around forums was that the Poles have never seen a black man before.
 
Terminus said:
There's no black folk in Poland?
Click to expand...

I am guessing the Africans for some reason are electing not to immigrate there. I wonder if they have ever seen a Mexican and whether Microsoft would have done the same to a man of Hispanic origin. Personally I think somebody in marketing is going to get fired for this if they haven't already.
 
mjz_5 said:
it looks like the guy still has the black hand though???
Click to expand...
Exactly, that is how everyone spotted it. White guy with strange size head in weird position with black hands...hmmm. Same pic resides on American website with original black man, but on Polish site black man is photoshopped out poorly, and conspiracies start brewing about racism.
 
CaptNumbNutz said:
Exactly, that is how everyone spotted it. White guy with strange size head in weird position with black hands...hmmm. Same pic resides on American website with original black man, but on Polish site black man is photoshopped out poorly, and conspiracies start brewing about racism.
Click to expand...

I don't know if it can be considered truely racist. The original picture was used on the English site. It was there clearly to try to foster a multi-cultural image for Microsoft. The reasoning behind using the Photoshoped image only for the Polish site is crazy in the least.
 
LOL, looks like the same photoshop job South Park does with Mel Gibson face on his body in the show, haha.

Is that a Macbook he's got too?? lol
 
This has to be one of the stupidest things I have ever seen. I find it kinda funny and sad at the same time.
 
My question is: who on Earth would be smiling while using Microsoft software? Someone needs to 'shop in some frowns and angry faces and make it more appropriate, I think.

As a person of smiles, I also demand an apology.
 
If this had been shopping one white dude in for another white dude, or a black guy for a white guy, nobody would have said a single thing. Race relations is just so ridiculous.
 
Actually you can see more chinese/vietnamese in Central Europe than black people. In my city (12k residents), there was only 1 (in words one) black guy. On other side, chinese/vietnamese even have their own shops :).

So yes, seeing black guy here is pretty rare - even in Bratislava, capital of Slovakia i see maybe 2-3 black guys per week.
 
So wait... this is some how an outrage? Yet the fact they use only "good looking" people to advertise many products is an ok thing?

It's advertising... I sure as fuck wouldn't use a black man in an advertising campaign in the deep "rednecks forever" south unless it's an advertisement for unbreakable rope.
 
there is almost no black in poland beside the one who is turist, yes there are asian there, i am an asian and i lived and been in poland, my wife is a pure polish so i know this well, polish people are known to be judgmental but seriously this is marketing for locale, so whats the big problem crop out the black guy to make it more relate able?

might as well ask microsoft why asian microsoft ads on tv has no black in there and no whites? b/c it is for the freaking country, geeze not everyone is so sensitive all of suddent
 
If this had been shopping one white dude in for another white dude, or a black guy for a white guy, nobody would have said a single thing. Race relations is just so ridiculous.
Click to expand...

QFT
 
does anyone else think it looks a bit "south park"-ish? :eek:

southpark_chef.gif
 
sfsuphysics said:
So wait... this is some how an outrage? Yet the fact they use only "good looking" people to advertise many products is an ok thing?

It's advertising... I sure as fuck wouldn't use a black man in an advertising campaign in the deep "rednecks forever" south unless it's an advertisement for unbreakable rope.
Click to expand...

Just a note, there are lots of black people in the south... I live in a large city and it is mostly black (in Louisiana). Yes, you will see a jacked up truck with a rebel flag on it bumping rap at a light next to a dropped caddy on rims playing country (The latter is less common though).
 
phide said:
My question is: who on Earth would be smiling while using Microsoft software? Someone needs to 'shop in some frowns and angry faces and make it more appropriate, I think.

As a person of smiles, I also demand an apology.
Click to expand...

well if it was a linux ad we would have to photoshop out the female.... and probably still have them frowning because their code doesn't work. also have to photoshop them out of the suits as well.
 
I saw that on another forum and thought that it was very funny and wrong at the same time....
 
leSLIe said:
of course not!!

not really, there are some
Click to expand...

Terminus said:
There's no black folk in Poland?
Click to expand...
Hell no. Too damn cold and no orange drink.

They should have taken a new picture instead of having some intern half-ass it. I understand it's for a market, so I don't see what the big deal is. Should have spent the $20 on a new stock photo.
 
sfsuphysics said:
So wait... this is some how an outrage? Yet the fact they use only "good looking" people to advertise many products is an ok thing?

It's advertising... I sure as fuck wouldn't use a black man in an advertising campaign in the deep "rednecks forever" south unless it's an advertisement for unbreakable rope.
Click to expand...

WTF You're not from San Francisco haha.
 
That is a Macbook. I don't know if it's a Macbook Pro or not, but it is a Mac. Man that chop is just too funny. (Even for the stuff that wasn't chopped.)
 
Dan_D said:
That is a Macbook. I don't know if it's a Macbook Pro or not, but it is a Mac. Man that chop is just too funny. (Even for the stuff that wasn't chopped.)
Click to expand...


I would have to agree on it being a mac, and I would venture to say that it is a Macbook Pro because it looks silver to me. But I'm sure we all agree that Macs are much more aesthetically pleasing than PC Laptops.
 
Wow... this one fails on so many levels...

I can't believe that if they were taking the time to "fix" the chop, that they didn't at least fix the text box. For anyone who uses Photoshop, this wouldn't be much more than a 30 second job I wouldn't think. Select, copy, paste, select, copy paste, paste the text on top and done... Pretty much positive that this could fix this in Photoshop elements (maybe even ms paint?). LOL!
 
The original ad is pretty racist to me. Of course, I consider making any decision based on race to be racist. In this case, they chose 3 people of different races (also choosing to make the white person a female, since white males in business are basically synonymous with the devil (or CO2 if you're a devout Atheist) in America right now).

Can't wait until people actually don't care about race.
 
M0rph3us said:
I would have to agree on it being a mac, and I would venture to say that it is a Macbook Pro because it looks silver to me. But I'm sure we all agree that Macs are much more aesthetically pleasing than PC Laptops.
Click to expand...
Yeah, it could be a MacBook or a MBP. It's tough to say now that the model lines have sort of merged recently.
 
Good for Microsoft, but I wonder how long it will take for them to apologize for this one:

busey.jpg
 
epic fail! If you are going to photoshop a picture at least photoshop some naked boobs onto the woman in the picture. Everyone knows that! It's 99 % of what PS is about.
 
PheonixChameleon said:
Actually it was a white guy for a black guy.. or did you miss that? :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

doubleplusgood fail AGAIN :D

the original picture from US domain with a copywrite date of 2008 had the black man
The poland picture with a copywrite date of 2009 had the black guy head photoshopped to a white guy

FFS the hands were the same. A white guy with black hands and you still think it was the white guy that was shopped to a black guy

You Sir are full of FAIL
 
That Busey pic made this thread worth clicking on lol.

I don't really see a problem with this aside from the horrible photoshop.
 
thread=fail


busey=worth seeing again, except the busey pic should have the polish text on it. Then we can make pollock jokes about busey. That's how you photoshop the racism back into the picture.

Serpico said:
Good for Microsoft, but I wonder how long it will take for them to apologize for this one:

busey.jpg
Click to expand...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top