Comments on: Microsoft racist ‘SNAFU’

By: Andy

Andy — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 03:51:58 +0000

Where Henry says “Nice: so Microsoft ISNâT racist, they just think Swedes are…” yes, you got it. Wrong country, but never mind. I invite you to read the answers to this question: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090421123804AAgqIEs for an insight which you appear to be lacking. Welcome to the world of racism by proxy. Here’s a quandary for you: if you’re recruiting for a chain such as Hooters, where you believe that your clientele prefers to be serviced by young buxom waitresses, are you being sexist if you hire only staff with those qualities, or are you simply responding to market pressures? If you want a receptionist to make conference hall attendees feel welcome, and choose a friendly female face, is the prejudice yours for recognising the statistical predominance of male attendees, or is the crime society’s for allowing that skew to exist in the first place? There are lots of things in this world that are “nice” [sic] but we don’t get anywhere by attacking things that are not the problem.

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 22:30:26 +0000

Hey, I am the next guy, and I absolutely LOVE Microsoft!

And yes, they were advertising for the poles!

How African-Americans are in there???

By: Henry Emrich

Henry Emrich — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 03:55:41 +0000

Andy:

So basically, you’re saying that the only reason they changed it from MOSTLY white guys to ALL white guys, was because they’re marketing it to Swedes?
Nice: so Microsoft ISN’T racist, they just think Swedes are, because for some reason, they wouldn’t be able to wrap their minds around using a product that could also be used by a black guy.

There are no black people in Sweden?

Here’s a thought: if this was REALLY just Microsoft’s attempt at ‘adjusting’ an advertisement to a particular area, you’d think there’d be doctored versions of this for — let’s say — Japan, where all the people would have been replaced with Japanese people.

So, if you’re marketing to children, you show plausible children, if you’re marketing to nuns, you show plausible nuns.
If you’re marketing to Sweden, you make sure everybody in the commercial is White.

So maybe Microsoft isn’t racist in and of itself, but somebody in their ad department figures Sweden IS.

By: Andy

Andy — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 21:16:00 +0000

I disagree with this. If I’m marketing to Koreans, I’ll show a bunch of plausible Koreans using it. If I’m marketing to children, I’ll show a bunch of plausible children using it. Heck, if I were marketing to nuns, I’d get a bunch of plausible nuns. Where’s the big deal? If you think about it, even suggesting that the change is racist, is racist in itself, because the implication is that the Black guy is good enough for the photo, but the White guy isn’t. Bottom line is, if the images match your target audience, I don’t care what the colour of their skin is: do you?

P.S. I hate Microsoft as much as the next guy, but let’s needle them for what they’ve really done, not this fluff.