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Aug
09
Microsoft Edited Black Man Out of Polish Ad
Advertising is an odd bird in the business industry. Many businesses hate advertising for one simple reason, it’s nearly impossible to track effectively. Is an ad working? Can one really tell if it is or not? Then you have to ask the questions — How do I make my ad effective? What changes need to be made?
For Microsoft, a recent ad was changed that really brought the wrong kind of response. In a photo for a Microsoft advertisement, a black man was photoshopped out when the ad made it’s way to Poland. Here’s the photo comparison:
First, it’s obvious this was a Photoshop job. Most of the blog writers have accounted the change due to Poland’s ethnic homogeneity, if it’s a viable reason is where the debate lies. What does the photoshopping of the photo actually mean? Is Microsoft being racist in this situation, or are they just relating to their audience who’s predominantly of one race? Whatever the answer to that question is, Microsoft is in the process of taking the photo down.
The big issue with me is how horrid of a Photoshop job this was. I mean this was a complete hack job, and I’d find whoever did it and fire them or relinquish them of service. They didn’t even take the time to change the skin color of the hand. Tsk Tsk.
Convert it to PDF. This has several advantages, the first being the recipient is not required to have Microsoft Word and the second, is in a format that is much more difficult to modify.
I want the recipient to be able to open and read it but not edit it.
Is there anyway to do it? Is there anyway to prevent them from printing it?
I’m using MS Office 2003 in XP Pro.
Probably “contains nuts”. That seems to be on the label of everything else.
This is more than a little scary. But marketing is marketing. If they were “testing” and the 2nd image tested better than the first, then as a company it only makes sense to go where the dollars take you. But again, it’s scary that people feel more comfortable without ‘diversity.’ It’s a social litmus test as to level of comfort society has with ‘differences’ in people (and skin color.)
There are a few other factors that may affect it. Perhaps age. The 1st many looks older than the 2nd guy and perhaps for a ‘technology’ company, they need a more ‘youthful’ approach.
Who knows? It’s just sad really.
~ Learn To Speak French Fluently blog