Aug 26

Written by: VolumePR
8/26/2009 10:35 AM

The debate regarding the authenticity of public relations versus advertising is still raging, but thanks to Microsoft’s latest gaffe, PR just landed a knockout punch.

Somewhere during the course of preparing a Polish language version of a Microsoft business solutions marketing site, there was a little ethnic editing.

The image in its original form on the company’s U.S. site showed an Asian man, a black man and a white woman. In the version that appeared on the Polish site and came to public attention Tuesday, however, the head of a white man had been superimposed on the black man. And the man’s visible hand remained black.

Microsoft has since apologized, but the bigger issue here is perception. You don’t think this is the first time this has happened do you? And let’s not single out Microsoft. Walk down any magazine isle and you will see photo shopped image after photo shopped image. There are Web sites dedicated to these advertising disasters.

The point is that in this economy sending the right message is key. And the right message is a credible one. Public relations, when leveraged properly, is always more trustworthy than advertising.  The reason is third-party endorsements, meaning someone other than you is promoting your product or business. And most of the time this person is an expert in their field and reaches an audience that believes what he or she is saying.

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