This is True

Corporate Wordplay II

“Microsoft Mexico offers an apology to its users and to the public in general for some grave errors in the synonyms of the Microsoft Word dictionary in Spanish, whose mistaken connotations are offensive,” the company said in a full-page newspaper ad in Mexico. The thesaurus gave helpful synonyms like “civilized” for “western”, “pervert” for “lesbian”, and “man-eater” and “savage” for “indian”. While a Microsoft marketing executive said the company “accepts responsibility” for the offensive connotations, Microsoft Mexico’s product manager for office products argued that “if you check these words in most dictionaries, you will find the same definitions.” (Reuters) ...Under “product manager”, does it offer the synonym “corporate rationalizationist”?


Publication Date: 7 July 1996

This story is in True's book collection:
Volume 3, Page 10
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