April 17, 2010 10:42 AM PDT
Microsoft kills upshirt scene in Kin ad
by Chris Matyszczyk
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And so the upshirt goes the way of the upchuck.
After pressure from some people who found it creepy and thought it encouraged sexting, Microsoft intends to re-edit an ad for its new, socially networked cell phone, Kin.
The ad, which some might consider about as dangerous as an ice cream cone in a gunfight, showed a young chap take a Kin shot of whatever was up his shirt--presumably tautly trained pectorals-- and send it to an attractive person of the opposite sex.
(Credit: Screenshot: Chris Matyszczyk/CNET)
Consumer Reports was in the vanguard of those who wondered whether the ad encouraged the practice of sending pictures of personal parts to personal friends by cell phone, sometimes referred to as sexting and sometimes referred to as insufficiently mindful of the twisted, underdeveloped brain of the recently pubescent.
Microsoft's Safer Online Team chose to send a tweet to Common Sense Media, a not-for-profit organization that believes in "media sanity," and one that had expressed concern about the ad. The tweet read: "Microsoft has deleted the inappropriate portion of the Kin video. We take sexting very seriously, & are sorry it happened."
Those of a world-weary disposition might wonder whether this ad, rather like the IE8 vomit film that Microsoft pulled in July, might have been designed to deliberately court controversy.
However, perhaps this time Microsoft is genuinely surprised at some of the reactions. This might not have been the most wondrous piece of advertising ever produced. But some might lift an eyebrow at those who really believe that a little upshirt nonsense featuring those far beyond the age of consent at a party should be held up as a heinous encouragement to junior sexters.
To those who come from other world cultures, it often boggles the brain how sweetly concerned many in the U.S. can be about sex and how touchingly tolerant they can be of violence, mutilation, aggression, and assault. You know, stuff that often seems to do people quite a lot of harm.
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