Click image, gets bigger.Beyond Binary
column by Ina Fried
CNET News [tech on-line news service]
25 August 2009
Microsoft apologizes for
race-swap photo incident
by Ina Fried
Microsoft apologized Tuesday for using photo editing techniques to change the race of a person depicted on the company's Web site.
In a photo on the company's U.S. Web site, three businesspeople -- one black, one white and one Asian -- are shown as part of a pitch for Microsoft's business productivity software.
In the same photo on the site of Microsoft's Polish subsidiary, a white head is placed over the black person's body, although the hand is not changed.
The move sparked controversy after it was noticed, quickly making the rounds on Twitter and various Web sites.
"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" from the Polish site. Microsoft also apologized on its corporate Twitter feed.
Here's the U.S. site photo [a]nd here's the one from the Polish site [see images at top of post]:
During her years at CNET News, Ina Fried has changed beats several times, changed genders once, and covered both of the Pirates of Silicon Valley. These days, most of her attention is focused on Microsoft. E-mail Ina at: ina.fried@cnet.com
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by M C August 25, 2009 5:12 PM PDT
Who exactly was protesting this? Poland's African-Polish community?
by TinyIoda August 25, 2009 5:29 PM PDT
@: M C...
i dont care what others say... that was great!!!!
Name me one magazine... One Website... One Anything... that doesnt touch up every picture the put up anywhere... do you really think the girls you ogle every day look exactly like that.... HA... call me a racist if you want but publishers ALWAYS play to the demographic!!
by gwailo247 August 25, 2009 5:33 PM PDT
You'd be surprised. Its not your grandpa's Europe.
by tektaktyks August 25, 2009 5:38 PM PDT
no it was barry McCaca @ twitter (vip) i think since he was quoted on cnet
ps im rotfl @ the whole story
by jaguar717 August 25, 2009 10:42 PM PDT
Maybe the African-American-Polish "community"?
Ha. I don't think anybody else does this fake hyphenated-Americanism thing. "Oh yeah, I was born down under and moved to Europe for a while, now I'm on my way to Mexico where I'll be an Australian-German-Mexican."
by CPGUY August 26, 2009 2:57 AM PDT
The Kashyyyk population must be up in arms about this one:
http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/7308/microsoftlocalisation.jpg
by nastynewt August 26, 2009 7:13 AM PDT
It's sad that the Chewbacca photoshop looks better than the MS one. Loved it!
by rdupuy11 August 26, 2009 7:44 AM PDT
@Tinyloda,
Most corporate boardrooms have a few 'white males'. But the adverts that people are describing as looking 'american' what they mean, is they have the american penchant for false diversity.
Even if, the last I checked, there are a lot of white men in America...same as Poland, we don't necessarily want our photographs to reflect that. The U.S. is 68% white, 12% black and 5% Asian.
It's not that including one white male is going to raise a storm of controversy...of course it won't. But, in general there is this kind of faked out diversity that we value so much in America, that other countries just find strange...and I for one tend to agree with them, it is forced, and a bit strange.
I doubt they really wanted to get rid of the black guy, they just wanted to include one white guy in the photo....probalby seemed logical to get rid of the black guy, since there are so few black people in Poland.
by colamix August 26, 2009 2:57 PM PDT
Microsoft is not the first or last to use crass manipulation to play on demographics. But as the company who sicked its army of lawyers on teenager Mike Rowe and countless other evil deeds, Microsoft should know it's the target of rightful hate and things like this will get them bad press.
by tektaktyks August 26, 2009 5:18 PM PDT
chewie is great
by discocow August 25, 2009 5:15 PM PDT
OK, as a lukewarm defense of Microsoft here, this is a problem my company runs into as well. We try to keep our US marketing pieces representationally diverse, using people from various races and ethnicities in the photos when we can. But then when you want to use the same piece in some international markets it can look "too American", especially in countries that don't have many (or any) people of the ethnicities shown. If you're on a tight budget you really don't have much choice, and in fact you have the same problem with very small local companies - for example a small Mexican or Taiwanese firm might purchase online image libraries for use in their marketing materials, and it's hard to find economical pictures with non-American ethnicities.
Still, Microsoft is not exactly a low budget company, so this is clearly a mistake in their case.
Chip @ Computer Troubleshooters
by Super2online August 26, 2009 7:53 AM PDT
I purchase hundreds of stock photos every month for my business and I can tell you that it can be difficult to find stock photography that provides a balanced ethnic portrayal for every situation a business will need photos for. You can research this for yourself. It won't take long to see the problem. I have talked to photographers about the situation and they state it can be difficult to provide since you are limited by the agency's providing models. Agencies however run into the same issue themselves.
That being said, Microsoft (or any company for that matter) can stop these types of problems by ensuring their people adhere to policies prohibiting this type of stuff.
by celticbrewer August 26, 2009 8:26 AM PDT
Prohibiting what type of stuff? Reflecting the country's population? If the ads were for China, they'd probably put more Asian people in it. If it was Africa, there'd be more Africans.
MS has nothing to apologize for and shouldn't have taken the photo down.
The title is "Empower Your People" not: Empower a population that doesn't reflect your country.
by Castrella August 26, 2009 1:16 PM PDT
I've worked for an advertising agency that had Microsoft as a client. When doing print for them, we were forced to select images from Microsoft's own media base. Which was very diverse, with almost all images containing people of african and east-asian descent.
This was always awkward here in Norway, and I'd assume many European countries where the African population is much smaller. Using pictures like this sends a message that "we don't care enough about your tiny market to get pictures that are relevant for you".
We never retouched, but did use certain images that weren't as blatantly American over and over again.
This is just Microsoft US marketing branch being ignorant of other cultures. They could easily afford to take pictures that their different markets can relate to.
by gameking23 August 25, 2009 5:23 PM PDT
I realy do not care about the whole race thing, but to note the lighting on the dubbed one is not very good quality. considering on how the lighting is hiting everyone the guy in the middle does look out of place.
by EcuadorHomesOnline August 26, 2009 8:27 AM PDT
You're right - the light in the scene is hitting everyone on the right side but the new guy is lit from the left. And the new guy isn't nearly as handsome as the black guy is, he looks like a dweeb :-)
by shycelticwitch August 26, 2009 8:43 AM PDT
LOL and people scoffed at me when I said you should need a professional license to drive Photoshop!!!
by fafafooey August 25, 2009 5:26 PM PDT
Did Michael Jackson have to apologize after he switched his race???
by tektaktyks August 25, 2009 5:36 PM PDT
and to whom: whites,blacks or asians?
by zmjman08 August 25, 2009 6:02 PM PDT
rofl epic!
by zhouij August 25, 2009 9:49 PM PDT
I'd say he should apologize to Asians. Because he's been black, and then he turned white, but he never became Asian. That's very discriminating.
by Mr. Dee August 25, 2009 10:43 PM PDT
Michael Jackson did not change his skin color on purpose. He suffered from a disease called vitiligo where the pigmentation of his skin started losing its melanin. It can even affect people of Caucasian race, they are attached with the name albino, that's basically what Michael became. Yes, it was possible for him to reverse some of the pigmentation back to his true skin color, but it would have been extremely difficult, its much easier to just turn the skin pigment full white and be done with it.
by NarukiOni August 25, 2009 11:34 PM PDT
While Jackson may have had vitiligo, it is not called "albinism" in white people. Those are two entirely different diseases!
For one thing, you are born an albino, but vitiligo doesn't start at birth.
by unskinnybob August 26, 2009 12:27 AM PDT
vitiligo? It's called skin bleech. More and more African Americans suffer from it. Explain the nose.
by greeneres August 26, 2009 3:32 AM PDT
good point...MS should not have to apologize. how come everything has to be about race...i'm black and so what the black guy got edited. nobody died and it's not the end of the world
by Mr. Dee August 25, 2009 5:26 PM PDT
I don't find the race swap strange, its called marketing and demographics. For instance, I live in the Caribbean, if you go to Microsoft's Jamaican website, you are likely to see black people there. In some ways I feel more comfortable seeing this than seeing Asians or Caucasians because I consciously know that I live in a country where the natives are black people and I expect the local employees selling Microsoft products here to be mostly black.
Its just like Apple using native races for Mac vs PC in the UK or Japan. If Apple had used John and Justin in the UK, would there be an uproar because they don't have an accent like people from the UK? Same applies to Japan and don't sense any form of racism, just plain marketing.
by tundraboy August 26, 2009 7:31 AM PDT
Okay it's demographics then. How come the black guy got photoshopped but not the Asian? Oh but maybe Krakow has been overrun by Chinese and silly you, you kept it a secret.
by rzgar_espo August 25, 2009 5:43 PM PDT
It has nothing to do with racism. In pollen market , using a African faces is little unusual. I'm from Kurdistan and in our market you will never see an African face in market or affiches or any website not because we're racist but only it can make impression in kurd customers, its psychological thing.
But Microsoft deserve to be hated
by NarukiOni August 25, 2009 11:35 PM PDT
So, pretty much because it's a racist thing, then.
by fryarmier August 25, 2009 5:49 PM PDT
Thisisaproblem?Getoverit.Findsomethingelsetogetworkedupabout/
by gareth_pn August 26, 2009 1:31 AM PDT
Like a broken space bar on your keyboard?
by August 26, 2009 8:05 AM PDT
gareth_pn ftw...epic response. Had me in stiches (not being sarcastic!)
by Freiheit13 August 25, 2009 5:51 PM PDT
"...change the race of a person depicted..."
They changed someone's race? From human to what?
by timber2005 August 25, 2009 7:26 PM PDT
That's species ><
by baggyguy1218 August 25, 2009 8:41 PM PDT HAHAHAHA FROM HUMAN TO WHAT!! Thats friggin classic...tell'em what he wins Timber2005.
by Jack K1 August 25, 2009 6:07 PM PDT Big whup.
by flaker55 August 25, 2009 6:25 PM PDT Why should anyone care about this. Just get over it.
by damiandennison August 25, 2009 6:26 PM PDT I just wish we as a people could get pass this race thing and stop wasting time. We have been here on this earth long enough now to know it does not matter. It does not say who you are or what you are.
by t8 August 25, 2009 6:47 PM PDT Well said. Many people use the excuse of race for all sorts of bad behaviour. Each person is different and should be judged according to their character.
by Tradeur August 25, 2009 6:29 PM PDT Are there a lot of Asians in Poland? How come they did not alter the image of the Asian guy?
by Hernys August 25, 2009 7:14 PM PDT He was not in the center of the picture. I didn't even notice him.
by kavehsun August 26, 2009 2:55 PM PDT A lots Vietnamese and Chinese live there
by August 25, 2009 6:36 PM PDT hmm cant tell for sure, but is that a mac laptop in a microsoft add :)?
by August 25, 2009 6:37 PM PDT "ad" of course
by Hernys August 25, 2009 7:15 PM PDT Maybe it is, Microsoft does sell products for Apple computers.
by t8 August 25, 2009 6:46 PM PDT Poland doesn't have a Afro population. This is hardly racist, it is practicle and representing the their demographic. Not sure what the asian population in Poland is however.
by kavehsun August 26, 2009 2:56 PM PDT 1+ million asian
by inachu August 25, 2009 6:57 PM PDT Some countries to this day do not have any black people and for those who have never seen one may feel alienated by the picture and will never be secured as a customer. It seems Microsoft does not have a demographics dept. Really now Would you place an all white ad in an all black country? I have been to China and have seen some all white TV ads and they look VERY silly.
by t8 August 25, 2009 8:03 PM PDT I come from a country with very few negorids. When I see advetising in my country that has a negro in it, I am not offended at all, but I do get the feeling that it is Americans marketing to me as oposed to a local company marketing to me. It also seems quite cheap because using a pic with a racial group that doesn't exist in your country makes you think that the photo came from a stock library rather than taking pics of locals, especially if they are being passed off as locals. I am defending Microsoft on this one. In this instance, I don't see any wrong here which is unusual for Microsoft because they have a track record for wrongs.
by drbyte August 25, 2009 7:07 PM PDT Now that's change!
by PixP August 25, 2009 7:28 PM PDT lol opppps!
by jonquilmcd August 25, 2009 8:33 PM PDT There's nothing wrong with this. It's Poland... I doubt there's very many black people there and to place one in such an environment comes out as strange and sticks out like a sore thumb in a situation which you want the customer to feel like they can identify with you.
by lordmorgul August 25, 2009 8:39 PM PDT Zero 'racism' issue in this article... and shame on cnet and all the other sites posting spamming this issue as if it was worth discussing. It does not help fix REAL racial issues in America by calling this non-issue what it is not. This article (NOT the ad itself) clouds the issues and further promotes bigotry. I am very thankful I loaded this page blocking all ads since promoting cnet in the slightest for this stupidity would pain me.
by jonny-b2 August 25, 2009 8:46 PM PDT Changing the race was the correct thing to do for the Polish market. In marketing localization is the key, Microsoft changed the language of the web site and changed the image to better reflect the target demographics. I do not see why would they apologize for that. They should stick to their decision and tell how it is. This has nothing to do with racism and is indeed a smart practice. jonny@cryptoheaven.com
Showing 1 of 3 pages (100 Comments)
7 comments:
In a recent interview on BBC World's Digital Planet one MS spokesman said that their next target would be Africa. This continent may be the new Digital Frontier, in theory new and faster connections are available in some countries since the summer, MS will be selling a special version of Win7 that has been reduced to the max especially for "emerging markets" that is said to work on older machines. The amount of cell phone users has exploded over the last few years, interesting things are happening. I wonder how people in the african blogoshpere will react to this story.....
(Photoshop errors can happen to every company, but it is just so much more fun if it is MS)
Get Ubuntu. Get a Mac. Right bloody now. Quitting Windows is like quitting smoking. At first a real pain, but your life will definetly improve once you discover what you have missed and what you have gained instead.
You should see my new head! I'm Korean now! The Microsoft doctor says the stitches will heal in a few weeks.
(btw rent "Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle." A really funny window into the subculture of Asian-American top-tier kids.)
I got this theory that if Mac ever sells as many boxes as Windows machines, the Evil Malware Creeps will finally target their viruses and worms and cooties to the Mac OS, so Macs will no longer be "cleaner" than Windows machines. Ditto Ubuntu.
Here's a trivia question: According to a just-published survey, which Celebrity's web photos are most likely to contain Malware?
Probably somone actres I never head of, I don't watch TV and the newest moies are not iteresting.
There is a rumour floating around that the newest Apple OS which will be released tomorrow contains a hidden malware/virus app. but that has yet to be confirmed. So your theory is correct I reckon. Apple estimates that Snow Leopard will sell around 5 million copies, wether these figures are just for the US I cannot say. Ubuntu has around 6-8 million users, but who would be fooslish enough to write malware in Linux ? BTW there is a site that collects grave photoshop errors from ads, celeb pics etc etc. Gotta find the article again, then I will post it.
In any case, the days of Microsoft Word Dominance are over, nowdays you can build your own PC far cheaper than a similar product from a regular manufactorer or vendor, choose your own operating system, choose your own browser or applications. Operating systems like Ubuntu or Solaris are FREE, gratis, open source code, same with applications like OpenOffice. who needs Photoshop when you can have Gimp for free with the same features ?
As a ons school programmer this should be interesting for you, you can improve your own operating system and share it with the resto of the world. Suddenly we have a choice again. Now isn't that just interesting ?
go ahead and read the sins of our father.
hey abbas, agree 100 % with you there on all 7 points. I just love that pictogram, gotta make a t-shirt out of that one.
pat seems like youve gone to ubuntu. ive been trying to convince bob for quite some time now to do the same.
i havent used windows in about 5 years now aside from work. rather happy without it.
haven't missed it even once.
Hey Abbas, I have tried to convince Bob as well to switch to Ubuntu (or a Mac), him being an old school programmer who still knows his BASIC should be enthusiastic about Ubuntu and Open Source/Free Code.
An expample, the music sucks though
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6oX9mn2F20
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