Grooveon Forums

http://www.theage.com.au/technology/technology-news/microsoft-apologises-for-changing-race-in-photo-20090827-f04p.html

IMO as someone who works in marketing/advertising, NO i dont think its racist & truth be told if i was working for the marketing department in the polish branch of Microsoft i too would have been ok with this, actually i would have recommended this.

They are advertising a product to a certain market, a certain demographic. For the US market it would be advantageous to have black person in the advert, not only because there are alot of black people in america but because of the social responsibility microsoft would like to portray to the american market. On the other hand poland doesn’t have too many black people, they are aiming there product at there own people & if you look closely the black man is very african american looking...last time i checked there arent too many african american in poland. How come there isnt any black people in VB commercials??? Cause darkies dont drink bad beer for a start but mainly because the main consumers of the product are white Australian males between 18-60.

Its not racist is just being pedantic & appeasing the moral police imo.

I was deeply offended by your post Asanka. VB isn’t bad beer lol. I personally don’t like VB but a few mates of mine who are beer experts almost to the point of having a huge shed filled with home brew i asked them so what beer do u like...Corona? Crown, Asahi, HoeGarden? the go nah VB is the best…

I can’t believe how much attention this ad has gotten. I agree with Asanka. They’re just just targeting a demographic.

The only thing that grabbed my attention about this ad, is the fact that the dude is on a macbook with the apple photoshopped out! LOL! Also, the woman’s monitor isn’t plugged into power or a computer.

“darkies”???? what is racist?

haha sif change the ppl in the photo lol

dude all my african friends and a couple of african americans were laughin out loud when i showed ‘em. I couldnt help but laugh too .

hasin has black friends

lol he looks old more than anything… So Asanka you saying there’s no need to promote to coloured people in Poland cause they were all cooked liked steamed vegetables years ago?

I don’t think that the color of a persons skin or where they come from should be changed to suit a demographic. It dosent make sense.

I can understand if Microsoft was advertising to a country that has never known that a black African person has not existed.

But common this is 2009 everyone around the world knows there are different looking people all over the world.

I mean to be honest if i never seen that advertisement and was shown it in a newspaper or TV i would be looking at the service that is being advertised...i wouldn’t have thought twice about who was actually in the advertisement.

I think a well known company like Microsoft should be ashamed for this. And if the people of Poland need a person to be changed for them to look at an ad. Then if i was Bill Gates or whoever is in charge now i would say publicly that Microsoft’s stance on this sort of crap is not tolerated and if the people of Poland choose not to buy services based on an african person in the advertisement then it should be made public that these things are going on.

I’m pretty sure most marketing strategies are aimed at the subconscious. I think it’s hard to judge on the success of targeting a demographic in such a way, without seeing the results.

The CEO is Steve Ballmer. I believe he assisted with marketing in the early days of MS.

Yeah bro but you are educated - i came back from falls creek on the weekend - went to the bush maccas - it was like they had never seen an asian before!
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C’mon Bill Gates is mad responsible for more than just this photshop image - like relating to G8 summits, UN Agenda 21 etc. Why would a man leave Microsoft to get involved with philantrophy?

You’re asian?!?!

Oh man, i thought you were white. Could be to do with your profile pic.

This changes EVERYTHING!! lol.

No i’m whiter than casper! My mate was the asian! lol!

http://www.theage.com.au/digital-life/computers/webcam-trackers-blindspot-now-a-racist-sensation-20091222-laws.html?autostart=1
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RACIST COMPUTERS! LOL!

“I think my blackness is interfering with the computer’s ability to follow me”

LOL at blackness.

Mind you, I’m surprised they didn’t test that. It’s like when Sun released a server with a dvd drive that couldn’t boot dvds.