A lot of people may have forgiven Chris Brown for his assault of then-girlfriend Rihanna in 2009, even the latter's father seems to think the two should be together ("Go back to your abusive boyfriend, it's for the best"). So perhaps Microsoft didn't think much of it when they ran an advertisement featuring Brown, but at least one person think it hasn't been long enough and not enough remorse has been shown, and they don't appreciate having his face forced upon them via the Xbox Dashboard.
"Whether you like it or not," Xbox forum user Markatansky wrote, "giving this animal any promotional space sends a message to everyone who uses your service that it's okay to beat up women and also that you're willing to overlook it so long as you're famous. I, and no doubt plenty of others, would extremely appreciate it if Xbox took down these adverts and prevented any similar marketing campaigns from even getting off the ground. It's in your own best interests to do so too.
"I can appreciate that you are a business and your main aim is to make money, but there are ways you can do this without dealing with homophobic and misogynistic lowlife thugs like Chris Brown – would you show adverts for Gary Glitter so wilfully? There are plenty of much more deserving and respectable musicians and artists around who would benefit from such advertising and it would do both you and them a world of good to consider them instead."
Microsoft have since dropped the campaign, although they say that the message left by Markatansky had nothing to do with their decision. They didn't go into any detail on what DID make them change their mind, but something tells me if the man can win a Grammy and then brag on Twitter that he won despite his prior actions then this has probably got more to do with a cheque bouncing than any moral ground.
