Infinite Path

Two identical photos used for a marketing campaign have appeared all over the internet during the last few days. In fact, they are not entirely identical. One photo features three people all looking fairly jolly. One of them is black. In the other photo, everything remains the same except the head of the black man is now the head of a white man.

Microsoft are starting to pay the price for this photo-shopped PR disaster. There has been uproar online from bloggers, commentators and media organisations.

In a world where everything is available online, and where there is always someone out there who will take satisfaction from spreading potentially damaging stories about someone else, or another company, it is extremely dangerous to do anything that could possibly be interpreted as racist.

Whether or not anyone at Microsoft was deliberately racist is not the issue. The more prevalent point in this latest blooper is that even if Microsoft made their decision to change the photos for the right business reasons, if it could be misconstrued by anyone, they should not have done it for the sake of their reputation.

Many businesses and people face the same plight each day. The internet is such a powerful tool which can be used for good and bad. There is fear of saying or doing things (even if they are the right things to do) for fear of offending someone who could then use the internet to vent a campaign of hate against them.

The freedom of the internet, and the – almost completely open – platform for publishing information that it provides are great for everyone. However, there are negative sides to the freedom available. The fear of what can be said and done could well lead to much tighter controls on the information which is thrown into the public domain.

This is the downside to extreme reaction and constant commentating on every move of a company. Eventually people may be a lot more guarded.