Black in U.S., white in Poland: Microsoft’s gaffe

A picture to promote Microsoft’s business productivity software had a different face on its U.S. website than the face that featured on its Polish website.

Same advertisement, same purpose, but the smiling black man with a smart grey suit on the U.S. site gave way to a younger white man on the Polish site.

The advertisement
The original photo featured three business people- one white, one black and one Asian- seated at a table in a hi-rise office building. Apparently, they are in a meeting or are viewing a presentation.

The photograph has been conspicuously published on Microsoft's main U.S. site with an objective of promoting the company's business productivity software. The black man sitting in the centre turns white on the company’s Polish website.

The change has attracted public outrage and outcry. Some people have argued that the change is intentional as Poland's population is more or less wholly white and, racially, Polish.

Poland remains one of the world’s most ethnically homogeneous countries with close to 97 percent of the polish population claiming Polish nationality after the Second World War.

Twitter users and bloggers minced no words in denouncing the advertisement and voicing their anger. “In this day and age, this is shocking,” wrote one Twitterer, Barry McCauler.

Mea culpa
In view of the public’s response, Microsoft apologized on Twitter, “Marketing site photo mistake—sincere apologies. We are looking into the details of this situation. We apologize and are in the process of pulling down the image.”

A spokeswoman for the technology behemoth said that the changed advertising was a case of a “simple mistake” and was not at all racially motivated.

She said that the picture was taken in the September of 2008 and that the employees responsible for editing the picture had already left the company.

She further said, “We would really like to apologize. We are a multiracial company and there isn’t a chance any of us are racist.”