It's a little known fact that Marketoids spring into this world with a stylus in one hand and a Photoshop manual in the other.

At least that's what I've been lead to believe after being exposed to wave after wave of incredibly dull IT advertising, emanating from presumably a single, global advertising agency, because so much of the IT advertising I see features strikingly similar, generic shots of generic actors in generic scenes, staring or grinning at a hidden computer monitor.

Take this routine advert from Microsoft a few weeks ago. Most of us saw this version, featuring a generic mix of ethnicities, all grinning stupidly at an unseen projection. We can tell it's a projection because the presenter is holding something that looks like a remote, which is a good thing, because if we couldn't see the remote, we'd have to assume the subjects were grinning at the boss who just walked into the meeting with his pants on his head. Again.

Polish people however saw a different version, one where the black actor's head was clumsily replaced by a caucasian's head, complete with lighting coming from a different direction and an unusually short neck. Whoever did the work also managed to leave the black actor's hands on the table, and if you look closely, the caucasian actor's hair is fringed by the hair belonging to the body's former noggin.

Whatever they were selling was lost in the outcry over Microsoft Poland's racist advertising.

An apology, as generic as the photo, duly followed.

In the last couple of days, it's happened again, though this time it's not offensive, just bizarre. Microsoft announced Windows 7 launch party-like-events that they are "sponsoring". Sign up, agree to the terms and conditions, and Microsoft will supply you with 1 packet of balloons, 1 packet of streamers, 1 packet of Windows 7 themed cards, a few other worthless consumables and a single copy of Windows 7 Ultimate to share with your friends. Well, not the Windows part, unless your friends are bringing their own blank DVD's :)

Besides being a really dull way of artificially generating launch hype, the announcement was accompanied by the expected generic shot of a mix of ethnicities grinning stupidly at a laptop screen.

Then the airbrush was unleashed and outside the US, the balloons disappeared.

I have yet to see a plausible reason for why this was done, though somebody made the effort so there was a good reason.

Microsoft really needs to be more careful with the advertising it OK's, because the message is being drowned out by people shouting about the flaws, and unlike the old saying, not all publicity is good publicity.