Microsoft backs away from KIN advert 'sexting' reference

An advert for Microsoft's new smartphone handset, the Kin, has been amended after it drew complaints from a US consumer group.

Announced last week, the Kin is aimed at the social networking crowd, and will be available in the US next month, and in Europe in the Autumn. The ad campaign has started in the States for the handset, which will have its work cut out for it competing against the many other smartphones on the market - but the campaign almost immediately ran into trouble for a section which Microsoft has now cut.

The ad, which showed a brief image of a man photographing his nipple before sending it on to a female recipient, caused consternation with some of the more sensitive US consumer groups, who seemed to feel that the clip could encourage 'sexting'. As Mike Gikas put it on the Consumer Reports Electronics blog, the video "includes a downright creepy sequence in which a young man is shown putting a Kin under his shirt and apparently snapping a picture of one of his naked breasts."

The offending scene was in fact on screen for barely a moment before the otherwise unremarkable ad moved on to other things, but Microsoft has now removed that section of the ad and apologised for any offence caused, saying "Microsoft has deleted the inappropriate portion of the Kin video. We take sexting very seriously, and are sorry it happened."

While it seems unlikely that the advertising would prompt anyone to rush out and buy a Kin, maybe the whiff of scandal will.