Hello! You must login or signup first!

Ooops-microsoft-erases-black-man-from-web-photo-31322-1251286580-38

Confirmed   89,290

Part of a series on Microsoft. [View Related Entries]


Overview

Microsoft Photoshop FAIL Controversy refers to an incident involving a photoshopped Microsoft advertisement in which a black man’s head was replaced with a white man in the Polish version of the ad. The discrepancy between the images caused many to accuse the multinational corporation of racism and inspired the creation of many photoshopped variations of the image.

Background

On August 25th, 2009, the tech news blog TechCrunch[1] an article titled “Marketing Decapitation in Poland: Asians Ok, Blacks Maybe Not”, which featured a comparison of two user-submitted scans of a Microsoft ad. In the United States version, the ad featured a photo of an Asian man sitting at a desk to the left, a black man at the center and a white woman to the right. In the Polish version of the ad, the black man’s head had been poorly replaced with that of a white man. In the comments section of the article, many users debated whether or not the ad was racist or an acceptable decision to reflect relative absence of black population in Poland.

Microsoft Optimize Your Business Productivity Infrastructure Home About BPI Capabilities Products Empower your people with the IT tools they need Learn More
Microsoft Optymalizowanie infrastruktury produktywności biznesowej Strona głównaMOST 2009 Informacje o BPICI Funkcje Produkty Zwiększ możliwości pracowników swojej firmy za pomocą odpowiednich narzędzi informatycznych

Notable Developments

Online Reaction

On August 25th, 2009, the blog Photoshop Disasters[2] published a post titled "Microsoft Poland: At Least They Left the Asian Guy In", which mocked the poor photoshop job and pointed out the presence of a Macbook in the ad. The same day, the ads were submitted in a post to the /r/WTF[3] subreddit titled "Microsoft Poland – spot the difference", which accumulated over 4,300 up votes and 800 comments prior to being archived. Also on August 25th, the story was reported by the tech news blog Engadget[4] in a post titled "Microsoft Sucks at Photoshop."

Microsoft Apology

Within hours, the tech news blog Cnet[6] quoted a Microsoft representative claiming that they were “looking into the details of this situation” and that they were in process of removing the image. The same day, an apology for the ad was issued via the official Microsoft Twitter account.


The next day, Redditor digital submitted a post to the /r/technology[12] subreddit titled “Reddit ahead of the curve – Microsoft apologizes for head replacement in ad”, which received 860 up votes and over 220 comments prior to being archived. The same day, the BBC[7] published an article titled “Microsoft in web photo racism row.”

Photoshop Contests

On August 26th, 2009, TechCrunch[8] published a follow-up post titled "It's a Meme! Get Photoshop Warmed Up And Win a Bing Tshirt", which urged users to submit their own parodies of the ad. On September 4th, the Internet humor site SomethingAwful[9] published a compilation of notable examples in a post titled "Microsoft's Emerging Markets."

Empower Hugh Jackman With that Matrix agent body-jumping ability Learn More wwwW SOMETHINGAWFUL COM
i! CONSUME OB www SOMETHINGAWFUL.COM
Microsoft Optimize Your Business Productivity Infrast Home About BP oooWwoo0000000o Learn More
Zwiększ mozliwosci pracownikow swojej firmy za pomocą odpowiednich narzędzi informatycznych Dowiedz sie wiecej
Customer Satisfaction one Empire at a time. Learn More wWW.SOMETHINGAWFUL.COM
Micro Optimize Prodı IT power!? It's over 9000!!

Search Interest

External References



Share Pin

Related Entries 15 total

Comicsansiconc_h
Comic Sans
Vtxa3ywk_400x400
Tay AI
Developers_developers_developers
Steve Ballmer Monkey Dance
Images
Windows


Recent Images 67 total


Recent Videos 0 total

There are no recent videos.




Load 31 Comments
Microsoft Ad Photoshop Controversy

Microsoft Ad Photoshop Controversy

Part of a series on Microsoft. [View Related Entries]

Updated Mar 22, 2017 at 06:06PM EDT by Don.

Added Aug 26, 2009 at 11:41PM EDT by ajosephisme.

PROTIP: Press 'i' to view the image gallery, 'v' to view the video gallery, or 'r' to view a random entry.

Overview

Microsoft Photoshop FAIL Controversy refers to an incident involving a photoshopped Microsoft advertisement in which a black man’s head was replaced with a white man in the Polish version of the ad. The discrepancy between the images caused many to accuse the multinational corporation of racism and inspired the creation of many photoshopped variations of the image.

Background

On August 25th, 2009, the tech news blog TechCrunch[1] an article titled “Marketing Decapitation in Poland: Asians Ok, Blacks Maybe Not”, which featured a comparison of two user-submitted scans of a Microsoft ad. In the United States version, the ad featured a photo of an Asian man sitting at a desk to the left, a black man at the center and a white woman to the right. In the Polish version of the ad, the black man’s head had been poorly replaced with that of a white man. In the comments section of the article, many users debated whether or not the ad was racist or an acceptable decision to reflect relative absence of black population in Poland.


Microsoft Optimize Your Business Productivity Infrastructure Home About BPI Capabilities Products Empower your people with the IT tools they need Learn More Microsoft Optymalizowanie infrastruktury produktywności biznesowej Strona głównaMOST 2009 Informacje o BPICI Funkcje Produkty Zwiększ możliwości pracowników swojej firmy za pomocą odpowiednich narzędzi informatycznych

Notable Developments

Online Reaction

On August 25th, 2009, the blog Photoshop Disasters[2] published a post titled "Microsoft Poland: At Least They Left the Asian Guy In", which mocked the poor photoshop job and pointed out the presence of a Macbook in the ad. The same day, the ads were submitted in a post to the /r/WTF[3] subreddit titled "Microsoft Poland – spot the difference", which accumulated over 4,300 up votes and 800 comments prior to being archived. Also on August 25th, the story was reported by the tech news blog Engadget[4] in a post titled "Microsoft Sucks at Photoshop."

Microsoft Apology

Within hours, the tech news blog Cnet[6] quoted a Microsoft representative claiming that they were “looking into the details of this situation” and that they were in process of removing the image. The same day, an apology for the ad was issued via the official Microsoft Twitter account.


The next day, Redditor digital submitted a post to the /r/technology[12] subreddit titled “Reddit ahead of the curve – Microsoft apologizes for head replacement in ad”, which received 860 up votes and over 220 comments prior to being archived. The same day, the BBC[7] published an article titled “Microsoft in web photo racism row.”

Photoshop Contests

On August 26th, 2009, TechCrunch[8] published a follow-up post titled "It's a Meme! Get Photoshop Warmed Up And Win a Bing Tshirt", which urged users to submit their own parodies of the ad. On September 4th, the Internet humor site SomethingAwful[9] published a compilation of notable examples in a post titled "Microsoft's Emerging Markets."


Empower Hugh Jackman With that Matrix agent body-jumping ability Learn More wwwW SOMETHINGAWFUL COM i! CONSUME OB www SOMETHINGAWFUL.COM Microsoft Optimize Your Business Productivity Infrast Home About BP oooWwoo0000000o Learn More
Zwiększ mozliwosci pracownikow swojej firmy za pomocą odpowiednich narzędzi informatycznych Dowiedz sie wiecej Customer Satisfaction one Empire at a time. Learn More wWW.SOMETHINGAWFUL.COM Micro Optimize Prodı IT power!? It's over 9000!!

Search Interest

External References

Recent Videos

There are no videos currently available.

Recent Images 67 total