Inglorious racist basterds

[VVoltz]

The second screen is what was on Microsoft Poland official website site. I kid you not.

And yes, that seems like a MacBook.
They took it off last week. Microsoft. Microsoft Poland.

 

[Domination]

http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=176098

/me think M$ fails.

 

[Hop2089]

M$ are mean to me

Stop making exclusives of the series I love (You took not 1 but 2 Idolmaster games because they knew Westerners would try to import it if it hit the PS3 which deserved it the most not to mention Tales of Vesperia (I wanted to play that game so bad)).

 

[TrolleyDave]

Didn't somebody like Ford do something pretty similar with one of their adverts a few years ago?

 

[Domination]

I liek your avy Mr. Dave.

 

[TrolleyDave]

Well thank you Mr D! Like I said before, politically/socially aware avatars FTW!

 

[Domination]

The world needs more men like you. M$ needs to change their direction like you.

 

[TrolleyDave]

The world needs more men like you. M$ needs to change their direction like you.

I thought you said my Social Revolution ways were bad!

j/k Plus I don't think Hop thinks the same as you, he's stopped answering my questions his thread! lol

 

[Domination]

People change. And from what I see, humans need change.

Btw, who is M$'s CEO now?

 

[Hadrian]

Didn't somebody like Ford do something pretty similar with one of their adverts a few years ago?

Well it is well known that Mr Ford was a blatent racist.

 

[Veho]

I think I have to speak up for Microsoft Poland. Most companies like to pretend the local market matters, and therefore that any commercials and promo material was made locally, tailored to the specifics of the market. To show that they "care" for the [insert country here] users, "really, they do". Of course, they don't really make all their commercials locally, but they do edit their material to apply to the local market instead of screaming "MADE WITH PRIDE IN AMERICA, NOT HERE." In this case, they wanted the ad to show the staff of an average Polish firm, that the customer can identify with. And with less than 1% black people in the population of Poland (most of which are in college and not native Poles, and don't plan on staying), that old black guy is anything but average. In fact, he'd stand out more than the white head badly photoshopped at a weird unnatural angle on a body with suspiciously dark hands. Redoing the campaign set would have been more expensive, although in hindsight it would have saved them a lot of bother.


tl;dr: it's not racism.

 

[Man18]

What you should be seeing is that the cracker is at the power seat while the asian and the black guy are listening to what he has to say.

 

[VVoltz]

I think I have to speak up for Microsoft Poland. Most companies like to pretend the local market matters, and therefore that any commercials and promo material was made locally, tailored to the specifics of the market. To show that they "care" for the [insert country here] users, "really, they do". Of course, they don't really make all their commercials locally, but they do edit their material to apply to the local market instead of screaming "MADE WITH PRIDE IN AMERICA, NOT HERE." In this case, they wanted the ad to show the staff of an average Polish firm, that the customer can identify with. And with less than 1% black people in the population of Poland (most of which are in college and not native Poles, and don't plan on staying), that old black guy is anything but average. In fact, he'd stand out more than the white head badly photoshopped at a weird unnatural angle on a body with suspiciously dark hands. Redoing the campaign set would have been more expensive, although in hindsight it would have saved them a lot of bother.


tl;dr: it's not racism.

Veho, I understand your argument perfectly but the same could be said about asian population in Poland, and they clearly didn't edit the guy in the left. While racism is a broad concept and can clearly be interpreted by other type of behaviors, this was clearly racism and the fact that is backed up by market demographics does not make it less of an act of segregation.
It is obviously a fault of whoever approved that edit not only for the decision to specifically do that change but the quality of the output; this is a completely lack of professionalism that borders ethnic misunderstandings on any way you want to look at it.; expensive or not this type of thing could only happen to small amateur companies that does not have the resources to invest on a photo session again or even pay competitive artists.

 

[Veho]

I'm just saying it's not intentional racism, it's just gross incompetence.

 

[VVoltz]

I'm just saying it's not intentional racism, it's just gross incompetence.

Agreed. Wanna go grab a beer later?

 

[Veho]

Agreed. Wanna go grab a beer later?

Sure.

 

[Veho]

 

[raulpica]

This is starting to sound suspicious

 

[Veho]

And if you think removing minorities from pictures looks awkward...

 

[raulpica]

That guy's expression totally scares me