Microsoft Advertising Team Under Fire For Removing An African American From Its Polish Website

Reading Time: < 1 minutes

If you’ve ever played one of those photo hunt video games in a bar before, then this will be easy for you. Here are two screen grabs from Microsoft‘s websites. The American version is on the left and the Polish version on the right. There’s one major difference between the two photos. Do you see it yet?

That’s right, the African American guy in the middle was swapped out for a Caucasian. Microsoft is getting some heavy criticism for the photo. Why did the Microsoft advertising team in Poland think it was necessary to “whitewash” this image? What was the issue? His skin color? His age?

The Microsoft Advertising Team Needs Photoshop Lessons

The extra scrutiny of this photo has resulted in sharp-eyed experts finding additional issues with the image. It’s obviously a very sloppy Photoshop job. There are so many things wrong with this picture beyond the whitewashing.

• Neck: Not only are the shadows and light sources in the wrong places, but the white guy’s neck is twisted and looks broken.
• Hand: The head was Photoshopped out but not the hand. Look closely at the guy’s hand. It’s still black. Oops.
• Laptop: The white laptop on the table isn’t even a PC. It’s a MacBook with the Apple logo airbrushed out.

UPDATE: Microsoft issued a statement addressing the image. “We apologize and are in the process of pulling down the image,” Microsoft spokesperson Lou Gellos said in a statement. “We are looking into the details of this situation.”