Software giant Microsoft has apologised for editing a photo to change a black man's head to that of a white man.

The picture, showing employees sitting around a desk, appeared unaltered on the firm's US website.

But on the website of its Polish business unit the black man's head was replaced with a white face, although the colour of his hands was unchanged.

Microsoft said it had pulled the image and would be investigating who made the changes. It apologised for the gaffe.

The altered image, which also featured an Asian man and a white woman, was quickly circulated online.

Bloggers have had a field day with the story, with some suggesting Microsoft was attempting to please all markets by having a man with both a white face and a black hand.

"The white head and black hand actually symbolise interracial harmony. It is supposed to show that a person can be white and black, old and young at the same time," said one blogger on the Photoshop Disasters blog.

Others have suggested the ethnic make-up of the Polish population, which is predominantly white, may have played a part in the decision to change the photo.

Oh noes! MS are teh racialists! I'm selling my 360 and buying a PS3 Slim right away! At least Sony were only racist in their PSP ads and not the PS3 ones!!!

lol, i went to school at the university of madision, wisconsin.  we had a similar "scandal" where a picture of the students at a foot ball game was doctored to add a black kid.

Looks like an improvement imo.

i kid!

Anyway, if you replaced the asian guys head with a white head no one would care, or the white guys head with an asian head.

But oh no! the minute you replace a black guy it becomes racist, gotta love the screwed up views of society.

Some fool has just messed around with photoshop.

It's ridiculous to make a big deal out of attacking Microsoft over this.

lol... to add a black kid? never heard of something like that. when looking at it i was thinking. "man they didn't take the guy out. it just look like they added him in to make it look like he was taken out" then i read your post and realized it was the opposite of what i was looking for. funny.

Racist, homophobic... what next?

Anyway, this is pathetic.

There are no black people in Poland. Marketing picture like that would be stupid.

yep, to add a black kid.  the thing about the university of wisconsin is it really likes to believe it is a very progresive liberal minded school open to all ethic groups and cultures.  the problem with that is something like 85% of the school's students come from wisconsin/minnesota which happens to be about 90% white christians,...not exactly a diverse pool to be pulling students from.

black people are less minority than asians in poland?

better solution: take another picture.