Before we all start saying Microsoft is racist, consider the demographic of Poles versus Americans.

Sometimes is just happens that way.

[legendsrevealed.com]

@SpruceStreetPhil: That doesn't make it any less racist.

Look at the background where the window and the window frame meet the white guy's head. It's so poorly done I don't know why they'd release that garbage in the first place.

Also, that laptop looks remarkably like a mac. Not just because it's white, but because how the ports are laid out on the left side.

What's truly shocking to me here is the utter inefficiency of the Polish language to communicate its message within the space provided. They had to move the button AND expand the orange text field!

@SpruceStreetPhil: You don't understand the problem, then.

The fact that there's more white people over there doesn't make it right. There's more white people than black people in the US, too.

As someon whose seen Poland in movies and really loves the color orange I find this incredibly offensive.

They were probably using the crappy Microsoft Photoshop equivalent.

that, and they don't adjust the color of his hand to reflect his new "whitey" status.

Why keep the Asian guy?

@Smashville: You don't understand the problem then.

Consider this ad in China with all black people. Then consider it with all Chinese. Which one will the people who see the ad respond to more?

Ethnic groups of Poland broken up according to Wikipedia: Polish 96.7%, Silesian 0.5%, German 0.4%, Byelorussian 0.1%, Ukrainian 0.1%, other 0.7%,

That leaves .7%! that could be black. Much different than the 13.4% in the US.

@SpruceStreetPhil: I can't stand stock photography. You can always tell when you see it, like the pictures of a nice-looking, secretarial woman on the customer service page of a site. You know when you call that you'll get some stupid kid in India.

It really starts to bug me when stock photography meets demographics. Like... a tech ad targeting 95% middle-aged white basement-dwelling nerds has a picture of a Chinese guy, a black guy, and a white guy. You all know you've seen this kinda thing.

@SpruceStreetPhil: I understand the whole "Poland is more homogeneous than America" argument, but they didn't replace the Asian man's head with a crudely photoshopped white dude, just the black one. And even then, they left his hand.

@EdnaLegume: I didn't catch that at first! Hilarious!

@Smashville: Umm, in many parts of Europe you can go days or weeks without seeing a black person.

@korybing: Just a stab here, but the Poles may be more apt to "trust" a chinese guy in an ad with a technology?

@nycaviation: You can do the same in the US and Canada.

This reminds me of that KFC commercial where that black businesswoman snuck out of work (by hiding in a tea trolly, of all things) to go eat fried chicken. How are advertisers in any civilized country able to get away with blatantly racist activity?

@korybing: Yeah, I'm not arguing about the replacement being crappy; I read this entire thread over on Giz, but over there people cried racism immediately, while it has nothing to do with that at all.

It all has to do with who is in the target audience. We don't see any blue aliens in the picture. Why? Because blue aliens make up a minute percentage of the overall Polish demographic.

All I am saying is that there is no basis from these two ads to say that Microsoft is discriminating against blacks just because they replaced some dude's head (and not his hand).

oh, also notice the debranded Macbook. and the monitor has no wires (the one you see is coming off of the keyboard)

@korybing: Asians are also far more common in that area of the world (look at how many Russians look like they are from China but were born and raised in Russia).

@EdnaLegume: you beat me to it, I noticed his hand was the same color as well.

@itiswhatitis: According to the demographics of Poland, the highest amount of Asian population are 1,800 Vietnamese folks. Out of 40 million.

@hungryhomer: By making the connection between black people and KFC YOU are the racist.

@itiswhatitis: I know it is Poland, I am just stating that Polish people are more apt to see an asian (or asian looking person) than a black person.

@SpruceStreetPhil: The correct response would be just to take a new picture.

@The Porkchop Express: Why? Microsoft is an American company run by a white guy. If they're applying any kind of thinking that stereotypes Asian people as good with technology, Microsoft wouldn't be able to compete with any of the various Chinese, Japanese and Taiwanese firms that also do business with Poland.

@SpruceStreetPhil: I know what you are saying and agree with you. People who are throwing the race card about clearly have NFC about Marketing and the BS associated with it.

@SpruceStreetPhil: "We don't see any blue aliens in the picture. Why? Because blue aliens make up a minute percentage of the overall Polish demographic."

What a horrible fucking anology. We don't see blue aliens because blue aliens don't fucking exist.

@pattiesmart: is there a reason you are so darn angry?

@itiswhatitis: Because the "lol this isn't racism" is bullshit.

And bad anologies piss me off.

@Smashville: You know nothing about how these pictures are taken, used, or distributed by your comment.

It not like they hired an advertising agency and photographer just for this ad. It's STOCK photography, tons of these photos are stored on a database and picked from when the need arises. Taking a new picture for this ad would cut way into the profits that could be generated in Poland.

@itiswhatitis: The "Asian" has fairly ambiguous facial features (meaning it he could be from a variety of different countries, as far west as Hungary. The initial settlers of Hungary were the Magyars (Huns). Where did they come from? The Mongolian Steppe. How close is Hungary to Poland? Pretty damn close.

@zentex: Erm. And marketing can be very racist, as can the people they are trying to market too. Again, that doesn't make it any less racist.

For the most part, however, if they had had two seperate pictures, it wouldn't have been a big deal. What they did? 100% racist. Period.

@pattiesmart: Fine a better analogy for the whining voice raiser.

We don't see any eskimos in the picture because the percentage of eskimos in Poland is pretty damn low. Oh wait, maybe I should have said Inuits. Go hide under your bridge pattiesmart.

@itiswhatitis: That's because they're not ethnically Russian. Russia is also very close to China and Mongolia, so I'm sure that those traits have crossed the borders over the years.

@pattiesmart: What they did was switch a head. How does that hurt any black people?

@SpruceStreetPhil: Um, if you dont' have a better anology, it's not my problem. That doesn't make a horrible, completely wrong anology suddenly right.

@SpruceStreetPhil: MAN you guys are DENSE.

@squinko: I know. I am just saying that because of the fact that Russia is close to china and other countries in the eastern bloc (I guess that's the area you call it), Polish people are more likely to see an Asian person (or one with Asian features) and think nothing of it, where as a black person really stands out to them.

@itiswhatitis: sorry I am not making too much sense today, I am still recovering from a Monday night hangover.

@pattiesmart: Please leave if you have nothing constructive to say besides yelling. The Consumerist community does not look highly upon your type, we're trying to have a decent argument and all you want to do is yell.

Why are we worrying about racism here when it's a target demographic thing?

Here's an example of something that happened in Poland in the late 80s, when I lived there: an African-American artist who was visiting Warsaw had several Poles come up to him on the street and ask "Are you an 'n-word?'" They had never seen a black man in person, and had no idea how offensive such an appelation would be.

Besides, can't we see the humor in this? Where are the [more offesive than this Microsoft ad] Polish jokes in this thread? j/k

All the animated picture needs now is alternating color "PARTY HARD" on it.

Damn my channery.

@pattiesmart: No but if you are going to be so harsh then it is best to provide a better example/analogy so we can all say "ah, Pattiesmart has a valid point"

@gStein: That white notebook looks just like the one on my desk that's not a mac either. PCs come in colors other than biege and black you know.

@pattiesmart: How is my analogy wrong? Take away the word aliens (which could very well mean people from a different country and not the outerspace kind which you were probably thinking of) and what do you have? Blue versus black... how are two color's different?

And by the way, blue people do exist. You are an arrogant ignorant one to cry that they don't without looking. Therefore, blue aliens could very well exist, all they would have to do would be go to another country.

@SpruceStreetPhil: Not a racist, but a purveyor of cultural stereotypes.

@SpruceStreetPhil: Since we're on the topic of target audience, the ad is clearly aimed at IT professionals and companies that need some large-scale IT solutions. This isn't like Mom and Pop need a copy of Quicken to run the payroll. Presumably, if these are medium to large companies that would be in the market for what Microsoft is offering, the scope of their work would probably mean that they encounter people of all ethnicities and nationalities. There are over 2 million black people in Britain, about 300,000 to 500,000 people who identify themselves as Afro-Germans, and 3 million to 5 million Afro-French. People who are not white are not rare in Europe.