[gamerfu]

LOS ANGELES -- Software giant Microsoft Corp. is apologizing for altering a photo on its Web site to change the race of one of the people shown in the picture.

A photo on the Seattle-based company's U.S. Web site shows two men, one Asian and one black, and a white woman seated at a conference room table. But on the Web site of Microsoft's Polish business unit, the black man's head has been replaced with that of a white man. The color of his hand remains unchanged.

The photo editing sparked criticism online. Some bloggers said Poland's ethnic homogeneity may have played a role in changing the photo.

"We are looking into the details of this situation," Microsoft spokesperson Lou Gellos said in a statement Tuesday. "We apologize and are in the process of pulling down the image."


Source: http://www.katu.com/news/tech/54881772.html

Anyone here could of done a better job!

[lasto]

who really cares - its their photo and as such they can do anything they want.
If it was a white man removed would people be commenting on it then ?

Personally i would of removed all the men and just had a nice zoomed in pic of the woman

[Marco van Herwaarden]

It might be triggered by racism, but it might just as well have been done because there are no (hardly) any dark colored men living in poland so the picture would not represent the "average user" the polnish community sees.

PS Both reasons are wrong, although 1 is worse then the other i think.

[KevinL]

He has a tan hand in the second picture.

[Tom Finley]

Maybe we should tell MS to also stay away from anything that looks like the Joker...

[KW802]

Originally Posted by Marco van Herwaarden

It might be triggered by racism, but it might just as well have been done because there are no (hardly) any dark colored men living in poland so the picture would not represent the "average user" the polnish community sees.

I was thinking the same... that the stock photo was changed to reflect the local market, not necessarily a malicious act.

[Caddyman]

right, the marketing dept. probably made the suggestion and the advertising dept. swapped him out....no biggie...

it is funny seeing the 2 side by side though...lol

[Shelley_c]

Originally Posted by Tom Finley

Maybe we should tell MS to also stay away from anything that looks like the Joker...

Or Aborigines.

[KW802]

Originally Posted by Shelley_c

Or Aborigines.

... or Wookies:

[Shelley_c]

Originally Posted by KW802

... or Wookies:

*Applauds Kev*

[Zachariah]

Originally Posted by Caddyman

right, the marketing dept. probably made the suggestion and the advertising dept. swapped him out....no biggie...

Ya !, It is done all the time. People are paid, or live work environments are photographed to create advertisements. That way there are tons of photos work with depending on the effect or project.

It's retarded and politically correct. Once the photo is taken and signed off. Anything can be done with them so long as it does not break the agreement. Yet another good reason to eliminate special interest groups.

[JacquiiDesigns]

ah - the hypocrisy of political correctness.

Jacquii.