Dumb Move, Microsoft
Typically, I am all about marketing to the population to whom you're selling a product. This is often my complaint when I see so many commercials that seemingly only target their ads to white Americans (as if black, Latino or Asian folks don't watch network TV). So, clearly, I understand why, if Microsoft is selling software in Central Europe, they might want to have models that at least resemble Central European people in their ads.
If you notice, the picture on the US site shows a white woman, a black man and an Asian man. On the Polish site, the black man has been photoshopped out and replaced with a white man.
Now, I read a few articles and blog posts about this, today, and thought it to not be a huge deal, until I saw the picture itself. My question is, why was the black male replaced with a white male but, the Asian male not replaced? In the minds of those putting the ad together, does the image of the Asian male inpire more confidence in a technical product vs. the image of a black male? Or, to put this another way, do they believe that the image of an Asian male more palatable to their Polish market than a black male?
If they believe so then, just say so. I'm a grown man -- I can take it.
Well, after this story made its way around the internet, Microsoft put the original photo back on the Polish site and apologized.
Perhaps Microsoft should have learned from Intel who, a couple of years back, had to pull a magazine ad for the Core 2 Duo processor featuring a white man standing among a group of black sprinters in a starting position. What this looked like was a bunch of black men bowing down to a white man.
Look, I am not saying that there is some intentional racism going on here. However, what I am saying is that, at least when it comes to advertising and marketing, Microsoft and others do not appear to have the right mix of people at the table to help them avoid stupid blunders like this one.
Perhaps, going forward, they'll pay better attention. We'll just have to see.
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