Microsoft apologizes for race-swap photo incident

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 (click to enlarge):

(Credit: Screenshot by CNET News)

And here's the one from the Polish site (click to enlarge):

(Credit: Screenshot by CNET News)

[M C]

Who exactly was protesting this? Poland's African-Polish community?

[TinyIoda]

@: 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!!

[gwailo247]

You'd be surprised. Its not your grandpa's Europe.

[tektaktyks]

no it was barry McCaca @ twitter (vip) i think since he was quoted on cnet

ps im rotfl @ the whole story

[jaguar717]

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."

[CPGUY]

The Kashyyyk population must be up in arms about this one:
http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/7308/microsoftlocalisation.jpg

[nastynewt]

It's sad that the Chewbacca photoshop looks better than the MS one. Loved it!

[rdupuy11]

@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.

[colamix]

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.

[tektaktyks]

chewie is great

[Seaspray0]

I couldn't tell much of a difference. You earthlings all look alike to me.

[discocow]

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

[Super2online]

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.

[celticbrewer]

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.

[Castrella]

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.

[gameking23]

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.

[EcuadorHomesOnline]

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 :-)

[shycelticwitch]

LOL and people scoffed at me when I said you should need a professional license to drive Photoshop!!!

[fafafooey]

Did Michael Jackson have to apologize after he switched his race???

[tektaktyks]

and to whom: whites,blacks or asians?

[zmjman08]

rofl epic!

[zhouij]

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.

[Mr. Dee]

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.

[NarukiOni]

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.

[unskinnybob]

vitiligo? It's called skin bleech. More and more African Americans suffer from it. Explain the nose.

[greeneres]

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

[AppleSuxLeo]

Exactly ! The little freak turned his back on being Black...and paid to be made white...along with the chin/nose implant.
And the endless plastic surgery and IV drug abuse. What an ugly little freak ! Eeeeew.

[Mr. Dee]

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.

[tundraboy]

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.

[jpfirmin]

Demographically nit-picking, the natives of Jamaica were Taínos Indians.

[rzgar_espo]

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

[NarukiOni]

So, pretty much because it's a racist thing, then.

[fryarmier]

Thisisaproblem?Getoverit.Findsomethingelsetogetworkedupabout/

[gareth_pn]

Like a broken space bar on your keyboard?

[andy_nf]

gareth_pn ftw...epic response. Had me in stiches (not being sarcastic!)

[Freiheit13]

"...change the race of a person depicted..."

They changed someone's race? From human to what?

[timber2005]

That's species ><

[baggyguy1218]

HAHAHAHA FROM HUMAN TO WHAT!! Thats friggin classic...tell'em what he wins Timber2005.

[Jack K1]

Big whup.

[flaker55]

Why should anyone care about this. Just get over it.

[damiandennison]

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.

[t8]

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.

[Tradeur]

Are there a lot of Asians in Poland? How come they did not alter the image of the Asian guy?

[Hernys]

He was not in the center of the picture. I didn't even notice him.

[kavehsun]

A lots Vietnamese and Chinese live there

hmm cant tell for sure, but is that a mac laptop in a microsoft add :)?

"ad" of course

[Hernys]

Maybe it is, Microsoft does sell products for Apple computers.

[t8]

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.

[kavehsun]

1+ million asian

[inachu]

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.

[t8]

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.

[Renegade Knight]

@t8

Exactly.
I think there should be more controversy over a "photograph" being photoshopped and presented as a photo than the content itself.

[drbyte]

Now that's change!

[PixP]

lol opppps!

[jonquilmcd]

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.

[lordmorgul]

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.

[jonny-b2]

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.

[e-mail]

[kurth3]

Hey Jonny,

What explains keeping the Asian guy then? How Polish is THIS guy?