| Reasonable said: Wouldn't it just have been easier to take another photo? I mean, sure, why remove the black guy anyway? The fact they felt they had to isn't great - it doesn't reflect well on MS nor their apparent belief Poland doesn't like blacks. But why not just spend a tiny amount of money, get a new photo, and get away with it? 'Gotta love the way these companies set themselves up for a fall with this kind of stuff. |
I agree with you in principle, but I have issues with two of your assertions:
1. It is an assumption that MS did this due to a belief that people in Poland do not like blacks. Let's switch this around and think of it another way... what if someone creating an ad for a woman-specific product (makeup, women's shoes, etc.) decided to replace one of the two male images with another female image to make the ad more relevant to the target audience? Would that be an issue? From a marketing perspective, I don't believe it would. So it's difficult to determine if the goal was to remove the image of a black man or to add another image of a white man. I'm betting on the latter as the goal of marketing is to try and appeal/relate to the target audience as much as possible.
2. Why do people in this thread keep referring to MS as though it is a monolithic entity, i.e. - "these companies set themselves up". This implies that MS executive management in Redmond, WA had something to do with the specifics of a localized ad outside the US. Highly unlikely.
