Microsoft Apologizes For Photoshop Blunder

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Microsoft has apologized for changing the race of a person posing in a marketing photo.

CNet yesterday reported that Microsoft had edited what appeared to be a stock photo of three business people for its Polish site. While the original, untouched version appears on the US website and shows an Asian man, a white woman and a black man; an edited version of the same photo appears on the Polish website and shows a white man's head on the black man's body. The black hand resting on the table remains unchanged.

When asked for comment, a Microsoft spokesperson told CNet that the company was looking into details of the situation and apologized, adding that the image had been pulled from the Polish site.

Check out the images below or read the full story here.

Image Credit: CNet News

Jane McEntegart
55 Comments Comment from the forums
  • masop
    Smooth move exlax! But at least they fessed up and apoligized for their actions.
    Reply
  • ckiraly
    oh...and the woman in the picture was originally a man.
    Reply
  • baddad
    So the white American male is officially gone from American adds.
    Reply
  • Shadow703793
    CryogenicContrary to all the racism theories, I think thatthe polish version was modified to fit their demographics, there are less than tiny fraction of black people in Poland, the first image is a image the customers can't identify themselves with easily ... Anyway, they seem to suck at Photoshop ...Cause they NEVER used PhotoShop. They used Paint under Win7 (which it pretty decent btw)! :lol:
    Reply
  • whats the big deal if Poland doesn't have an ethnic african population?
    Reply
  • nafhan
    Other than the humorous photoshop mistake (forgetting about the hand). I don't think this is an issue. They're just targeting the local population. If they'd swapped out the other guy or the woman, this likely wouldn't have been newsworthy at all.
    Reply
  • Parrdacc
    Any excuse to play the race card I guess. Shame.
    Reply
  • JohnnyLucky
    I hope this wasn't some sort of weird joke rather than a bad mistake demonstrating a lack of attention to detail.
    Reply
  • awaken688
    For something like a website image, I would think MS would just do it correctly. I'm sure they have a relationship with a stock photographer if they don't have one on staff already anyway. Just have him create a basic image like this and have several different types of people. Oh well. They got caught, but it is just a marketing strategy, not racism.
    Reply
  • Hanin33
    my question is why and how are people deriving any information about the product being sold by the color of the skin of the people in a photo? do people in poland not do any business with those outside of poland?
    Reply