Having lived in Germany for two years, I can see why they would be doing this, even if I don't agree with it. Racism is a much less frowned upon thing there. They even still depict blacks in children's toys as being quite cartoony, if you get my drift. In Eastern Germany as of a few years ago at least, there was a new Nazi political party (different name, of course) and they had quite a few people in power in the government. There are many blacks in Germany, mainly from Africa and usually there for Asylum, fleeing from their home country. Some Germans are quite upset about this, claiming that the foreigners steal their jobs, etc. (When the unemployment rate is around 30%, I suppose they have a bit more justification for this than Americans do with illegals, but just like here, many of the Germans whining about not having work refuse to do the jobs that foreigners do).
By no means do I want to say that all or most of the German people are racist, but the mind set is different over there. In some places, having a black person in an ad could very well cost the company a significant number of sales. Sad, but true.