The advertising world revolves around targeting and reaching the best prospective customers to increase brand awareness and ultimately drive sales. Advertising placement in all mediums is researched and evaluated based on age, gender, geography, and ethnicity. Radio stations for example target different consumer groups…There are Urban formats that appeal to the African American population, Hispanic stations that appeal to the Latino’s for example, Rock stations that typically target men and Adult Contemporary formats that corner the market for reaching women. The same fragmented targets apply for most advertising. The example with the Microsoft ad attempted to demonstrate their market positioning to the Polish corporate consumers that happen to be predominantly white, just as Radio stations position their product and market to their target listeners. This particular targeted advertisement was simply trying to appeal to the core of their customer base but the critical errors in the ad created a forum to question racism. Why I do believe that we can argue that everyone is a little bit racist, I support Microsoft in their intention to create an ad that spoke to their target audience. This is no different than what most advertisements set out to do.

The United States has a very diverse demographic, which is why Microsoft included three completely different groups of people: one white male, one black male, and one white female. They are intentionally advertising racial diversity to demonstrate the corporate mass appeal of Microsoft to a variety of consumers. Just as, different products, companies, services, etc. have very specific targets and will advertise accordingly. Microsoft’s Polish advertisement should have been completely re-created. The result of the black man’s head replacement to a white man was done in poor taste – hence becoming a racial issue. This creative laziness does appear to be manipulation and therefore does interfere with the message of corporate culture. Once the race card is in play, the entire messaging does in fact change. So with this error I would have to suggest that Microsoft made themselves racist with their lack of attention to detail. However, their intension to reach a specific demographic that does exclude promoting ethnicity perhaps was simply their marketing strategy to achieve the highest return on their investment.

Racial profiling and racial tension is still prevalent in today’s society no matter what anyone says. There are too many individuals in our nation that are racist and I stand by that claim; however, I also feel there are a strong number of individuals who “play the race card” too much and read into things like the Microsoft example.
When evaluating this situation I came to a conclusion that in terms of a business standpoint this was a smart move by Microsoft, due to the fact that this specific advertisement was slightly altered for a country that is 97% Polish born which in means they are white. Advertisements are extraordinarily expensive and in the economic situation we are in now it is important to get every penny out of your ad. When it comes to this situation in particular I would say that diversity wouldn’t have went as well as simply having all white people which is what they did. Let’s get serious; there are probably some polish citizens who have never even seen a black person before. Like it was said in the article some companies use demographics and racial statistics to appeal to their market, and someone simply felt that the ad would be more effective in Poland with all white people. It was solely for business and that’s a decision that needed to be well thought out. Sometimes you make the right call other times you don’t, that’s life isn’t it?
People using the word racist in describing this situation should maybe replace it with discrimination if anything, still not a good word to be used to describe something, but I feel it is more correct. There was no mention of any derogatory terms or anything hurtful toward the black community.
In the post entitled “The Law” they stated that this situation is racial and advertisers for Microsoft should be fired. This is a bit harsh considering no racial terms or hurtful terms were used. The fact of the matter is if the advertisers are unsuccessful or did something to really hurt the company then they should be fired. This is a minor mistake or even gamble in my eyes. They also said that they “highly doubt” anyone in Poland would steer away from the company if there was a black man in it, and I agree I don’t think they would either, but the key word is “think” neither of us could honestly say we know it wouldn’t steer potential customers away. The key theme in this argument is that it is racist and I am sticking by that it was not racist; however, the situation that followed it is indeed a bit sticky. You have to be overly careful in today’s society due to the fact that almost anything can be considered racist. If I was walking down the street with a group of white students people could make an argument that we are racist due to the lack of racial diversity. This is just the sad world we live in. There has been so much racial tension in our country that stems back all the way to the foundation of the country and we are still striving to be rid it. It stars with us, the young citizens of our nation, if we want to live in a racist free world it is on us to work together to accomplish this goal, until then all industries and walks of life will just have to deal with living under the microscope.

For instance, why do we have a Race Relations class at Penn State? Of course, for sociology students learning to investigate the dynamics of society in a county made up of many colors, this is important, but how is this class important to everyone else? In a purely Utilitarian sense, under the assumption that Penn State’s primary goal is to make money by educating students who grow up to become successful in their careers, have a high salary, donate to the University, and send their children to the University, a Race and Ethnic Relations class exists because it will help us better function in the working world. We need to understand and respect the other cultures and ethnicities we come across in the workplace in order to be successful and versatile in our careers. In other countries, that may not be the case because they are not immersed in the kind of diversity we are, whether in upper class suburbs or low-income rural or urban areas. Because diversity has become apart of our everyday lives, it would be dishonest and out of place not to have a person of color or some diversity in an advertisement in the USA. In America, I can see a car insurance commercial starring and narrated by a black man and think nothing of it, but if a person in Poland saw that, to them it would seem out of place and forced. It’s dishonest to have a black man in that boardroom in a Polish ad because in Poland it is unlikely that a person of color would be in that boardroom; that’s not by means of racism or prejudice or achievement gap but by shear lack of diversity in color.

If a Polish person were to see a black person in that ad, it would be like watching a movie with bad acting; you can tell it’s fake and you fall out of the world the filmmaker is supposed to create for you. Similarly, the message Microsoft is trying to relay would not get across because it would seem fake, forced, and pull the consumer out of the microcosmic world the advertiser is trying to create. It is not that a person of color is not worthy of being in that boardroom, but that in reality, it’s not realistic for a person of color to be in that boardroom in Poland.

I notice two faults in my argument. One is that there is a man seemingly Asian on the left side of the photo. From my work experience, contracting and managing IT groups, an Asian person could be in that boardroom because of the aggressive educational tracts in East Asia and because of the large East and South Asian/Indian population working in the IT field. The other fault is in the fact that the black man’s hand wasn’t changed. For one, it’s hardly noticeable and there could very well be hidden meaning in it – perhaps Microsoft’s recognition of a black man in that boardroom in a more diverse society. Although I will not argue that racism, blatant or masked by political correctness is prevalent in advertising, this is simply a matter of relaying a clear message and acknowledging the reality of a predominantly white European culture.