Microsoft Poland whitens a black face in its advert

I'm not sure whether or not to condemn Microsoft for this. Are they just reflecting Polish society here? Quite possibly.


news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8221896.stm

I guess they did it because there are not so many black people in Poland, and they did not want to offend the poles.

How is offensive to a Pole to see a black person in an advert?

Well you know, they have very light corneas and watching such a despicable dark sight might damage them. :P

hehe being ironic...i guess its just a marketing thing, not many poles would identify themselves with a black person....

I saw this last night. I think they are trying to make ads reflect the "diversity" of the population. They do the same in canada. Larger cities have more visible minorities therefore (government) employers try to diversify their staff, ads, police forces etc. to reflect the local population.

Mvefa - this just shows the hypocrisy on behalf of western countries. No matter how many laws you pass or how PC you present yourself to be, you can't escape true feelings and stupidity of an average Joe. Now the truth came out because some morons photo-shop skills were not up to the task, but did the best he could on the orders from his moron boss, you shift blame on Poland because you did not want to offend Polish people! How pathetic is that? Perhaps you should admit to yourselves that contrary to what you preach about multiculturalism, you're still not ready for it and underneath all this PC bull you're still the same old bigot as you used to be. Trust me, the world would be a much batter place if people were just honest about their true feelings. At least then you know where you stand.

Advertising targets various populations depending on different circumstances. How some will interpret it depends on their agenda. If one wants to find a hole where there isn't one can always use a microscope and voila! There is a hole! Wanna make the whole look even bigger? Use a more powerful microscope.

Toys are not going to be advertised with an athletic guy (of any race) riding a Tyco tricycle. Weight loss pills will not be advertised in anorexic clinics, burgers in weight loss clinics. It would be also silly to advertise hair spray to bold guys or christian crucifix in front of or inside a mosque.

It's one of the basic principles of advertising to target consumer groups based on various criteria and that includes the race of the target population. To an advertiser it is important that the potential buyers identify themselves with the persons used in commercials in as many ways as possible - race, age, gender financial status are just some of the examples.

I'm unaware of Poles being used for Microsoft commercials in India, China or Zimbabwe.

As far as i'm concern, the ones who photoshopped the photograph was Microsoft POLAND, not microsoft USA, or microsoft Holland. So there is no room for hypocrisy here.

The fact that we do not like to bash people for their colour does not make us hypocrites. And just think for a bit, how bad it would be, if the few retarded that we have here (Holland in my case) would express their hatred...this would turn into no man's land, like russia or Spain, where racial attacks are usual.

Let me tell you something to finish, "we try", and that makes us less hypocrite than you think..

And Poles would automatically reject any suggestion that a black person is fundamentally the same as them?


Apart from Jerry Seinfeld of course.

Really, seems to me like it was done on the cheap by the management who did not want to spend the money on a new advertizing campaign. As we all know the top bosses are foreigners, they made the decision to paint the black guy white, so yes its stupidity and hypocrisy, very much so.

Yeah a pole would NEVER do such thing!

Of course not. All Poles are perfect.

Interestingly enough, they left the man of Asian origin (on the left) in the ad.

Probably cause the vietnamise colony in Poland :P

I did not say he would not do it, but at least he would not hide behind some pathetic excuse, besides the Polish moron boss would notice that the hands are still black. Not that he's perfectionist, how did you phrase it?


Then you go on and say something stupid like this quote


Ah I see Poles are not colour so that makes it all right to bash them. Like I have said _______.

When i said this:


I followed it by this:


Read carefully before you pass judgements on me.


Where the hell did you get his conclusion, the fact that we do not bash coloured people, does not mean we bash white people...gosh....!!! where do you get all this crap!

Yet still suggesting the Poles are racist.


I did, hanc my comments. Someone has to point out the obvious.


From the light corneas bit, sarcasm with a hint of racism.

Everybody is going to buy microsoft products in Poland when they see sb's black hands on them while his face is white.

A lot of people in Poland are racist. That's just a simple fact.

Including you Harry.

true

Classic Polish debating skills! Can't attack the facts so instead attack the person pointing them out. Gotta love it!

Just pointing out the obvious, in case someone might have missed it. What's to debate there we have bigots like everyone else, but not everyone might know the fact that you are not very fond of Goys.

An even better example of Polish debating skills! The good old 'call your opponent a Jew' tactic. Superb!

There are bigots everywhere, in some places you have them more and more extreme, in this case Russia, Spain and Poland, where racial attacks happen waaay more often than in let's say France, Holland or sweden. Therefore my ironic, sarcastic comment...based on this fact...not on hypocrecy

Harry you should really come to terms with who you are. Nothing wrong with being a Jew you know.
The sooner you realize that the better.

Oh, I see you've learned them. Do you deny your prejudice toward Serbians?

Back to the topic - if it was about appealing to racists then the Asian would be edited out as well. Most racist people in Poland do not differentiate between the colours they dislike - as long as a person looks foreign, they're unacceptable. However nobody in Poland is racist enough that a change in the ad would be neccessary. After all, I can't seem to recall Will Smith coloured white in his movies and yet cinemas are full whenever one is shown. I think that whoever ordered the change aimed to better reflect the demography in Poland although it's pretty stupid considering that I've seen so many advertisments with black people in my life that I don't even notice them in the ads anymore.

But seriously, if all non-Asians were edited out in the advertisment shown in Singapore or Tokio, would people make a big deal out of it too?

This is true for my country as much as for yours, as for the rest you're generalizing it, not basing it an anything concrete, jut repeating the stereotype. As it is your opinion that's fine, I could also make a general statement about your countrymen here but I wont.

And more of the same. You know that you can't argue against the fact that Poland has a problem with racism so instead you just chuck in some racist abuse. You really are a most pathetic throwback to the days of the pogrom.

And more of the same, yet still denying this fact. This is really amusing your hatred will not let you see your own racism. Because I'm just doing the same thing that you are. So if you're able to see that you should also see it in your own posts.