'Off with his head!'

[Kiwon]

There's a worldwide recession. Microsoft can't afford to shoot a new photo. :)

Actually, I think it's called demographics. Poland has about 3% minorities.

Now if a Polish company exchanged a white head for a black one in advertising for their products in the US would anyone even notice?

http://www.foxnews.com/images/555796/1_61_a320.jpg

Microsoft Edits Black Man Out of Photo, Apologizes

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."

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,542901,00.html

[Tarlam!]

This is so crapola. So what, MS didn't shoot an expensive session to portray the same message to another target audience? And??

I applaud the marketing dude(ss) at MS for saving money.

When minorities cry foul over nothing, they lose me as a potential ally to champion real issues of prejudice, racism and bigotry

[MJZiggy]

Microsoft no longer has the prerogative to edit a photo? Does the photo misrepresent their services in any way? Does it misrepresent the black people? Which one of us is now responsible for going through every image on every website in the world to make sure a photo hasn't been edited?

[SkinBasket]

They could have given the white guy a fucking neck. Monsters!

[mraynrand]

Even worse, they exchanged a 'Geek Squad' cable going to the Dell Monitor with a more expensive cable. Geek Squad is suing for breach of contract. Discount cables are experiencing feelings of shame.

[Patler]

"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."

Geez. What the heck is there for Microsoft to be apologetic about? Had they done this to a real man, cut off his head and replaced with another, an apology would be in order. But this was in a picture.

The next thing you know someone will "discover" that the people in the photo are not who or what the picture suggests they are, that in fact they are models or something equally outrageous. Wouldn't that be a scandal?! :roll:

[mraynrand]

Thomas Sowell is angry that his head was deleted

http://thebsreport.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/sowell_thomas_biophoto.jpg