The original image in this advertisement from Microsoft targeted at IT professionals, shows an Asian man, a black man and a white woman at a meeting. That’s all good, for an ad in the US.
But when the same ad goes to Poland, the black guy apparently had to leave his head back home as it was being replaced with a white head, which is also both bigger and younger.
Now, it’s obvious who the culprit is here: Photoshop (or similar). Microsoft didn’t really cut off the man’s head, just for the record.
It’s one very bad job at Photoshop though, specially considering it’s an ad for Microsoft. I know it’s probably not an ad made in-house at Microsoft, but one would think that Microsoft picks their advertisement company based on the fact that they’re good at what they do. This Photoshopped picture ain’t good. The white man still has black hands and there are some problems with the proportion between his head and body.
Another fun thing to notice, the monitor in front of the woman is not even plugged in, so let’s hope she doesn’t need to use it.
Oh, and I do believe that’s a white MacBook they’re using, too. But it’s not the first time that Microsoft is using a Mac in their ads, but they did remember to remove the Apple logo, of course.
Apparently the reason for this little photoshopping action is because Poland has a more widespread racism. I can’t say whether or not that’s true, though.
In the official twitter feed of Microsoft, an employee wrote “Marketing site photo mistake – sincere apologies – we’re in the process of taking down the image”.
Let’s be honest here. It’s always fun to bash at Microsoft, I’ll be the first to admit that, but I think there’s really no big deal about this picture. Photoshopping images happens all the time in advertisement. Heck, I’ve even done it myself to shape up my chin a bit in some portrait photos (don’t tell anybody!). Replacing this guy with another guy more fit for another market is a lot cheaper using Photoshop than hiring an extra model to take his place and/or re-do the entire photo shoot.
The only crime here is bad Photoshop skills.
Or what do you think? Comments are below, so leave one 🙂
This is hysterical! Thanks for the great post. I’m used to seeing badly photoshopped images, but rarely for such a large company like Microsoft. I think you’re completely correct wehn you said the only crime here is bad Photoshop skills 🙂
I think people can occasionally get a little too thin-skinned about these things, not to say that this image was appropriate, or at all reasonable or well done, but in an age where Barack Obama can rse to highest office in the land, it’s hard to say we haven’t made progress.
Look forward to more posts like this!