Intel revolted by its own 'insensitive and insulting' ad
Racist inside?
Intel apologized this week for a print advertisement circulating around blog-land that some claim is racist.
The ad depicts a white man in casual office attire, arms folded and grinning triumphantly between two row of cubicles. The fella is flanked on each side by three spandex-clad black men crouched in a sprinter's starting position. The advertisement is captioned, "multiply computing performance and maximize the power of your employees."
While the white man's smug jubilation is apparently derived from choosing the Intel Core 2 Duo processor, there are some pretty sinister undertones in the advertisement. It's not difficult to see a white overlord standing over subservient black men who are bowing at his feet.
See for yourself:
"Unfortunately, our execution did not deliver our intended message and in fact proved to be insensitive and insulting," Intel veep Nancy Bhagat wrote on her blog.
The advertisement was published in Europe about two months ago, but was pulled shortly afterwards. Somehow it recently slipped by again and was published in a Dell catalog.
Here's the head-scratcher: The ad obviously would have passed through several hands before being ready for publication in the first place. Either the folks at Intel are such wide-eyed innocents that nobody noticed how the ad could be perceived or they are in fact racists and love the idea, or everyone involved was asleep at the wheel.
The advertisement was first spotted by the fine folks at Gizmodo. ®
Bootnote
On a related note, we couldn't help but notice the Wall Street Journal, in its write up about the ad, identified the runners as African-American men. Clearly, they are insensitive to the fact that not all black men live in the US.
We would venture to say the publication's execution did not deliver their intended message and in fact proved to be insensitive and insulting.
COMMENTS
and...
There would have to be a good cross section of the population to make this pc: one asian, indian, black, white, females of random races. Don't forget the Handicapped! I can see the ads innocence. If you would like to juxtapose blaxing processor speeds with sprinters, why not use a known superstar. Budgeting I guess. If the black runner was known, would this ad be ok?
Double standards
The fact that Intel pulled it's own ad was probably pre-empting the inevitable avalanche of PC complaints that would have ensued if they hadn't.
I also see that several commenters here have noted that if the "boss" guy wasn't white and male there wouldn't be a problem. This is indicative of the very real double standard in Western society where white males seem singled out for demonisation. A woman stabs a man: she was probably defending herself. A man slaps a woman: that's domestic violence. White man in charge: a supremacist tyranny. Black/Asian/Hispanic in charge: an equal-opportunity employer.
Perhaps the most graphic example I ever saw of this double standard was the introductory paragraph in the "Equal Opportunity" pamphlet handed out to all students at our local college. It read - and I kid you not - "Equal opportunity does not mean all people are treated the same." It then goes on to describe how "certain groups" have to be given special treatment to "level the playing field". Ah: this is obviously some strange use of the word "equal" that I was not previously aware of*. I was taught that equal meant "the same as" or "having the same value as". But obviously it actually means that all people are equal, but some people are more equal than others.
Oh, and this was the same college that had sexual harassment warnings in the mens toilets but not the women's, despite the sexual harassment policy stating that it applied equally to everyone. Hmm, there's that weird use of "equal" again.
I'll just pop me coat on now, in case I get arrested for complaining while having the wrong skin colour and external genitalia...
*(Nod to Douglas Adams for that line!)
looking for slights
your comment-
"On a related note, we couldn't help but notice the Wall Street Journal, in its write up about the ad, identified the runners as African-American men. Clearly, they are insensitive to the fact that not all black men live in the US".
clean out your head gear register….,,,,,are you aware that Negros in UK and Europe are referred to African American men… I have been to both and heard it myself…...stop trying to find offense where there is none...
oh and the sprinters……..I guess it would have been okay of 4 of 6 were white? Thats laughable...get a life people...
Over PC again
Too much political correctness today.
Yes there is a fine line when talkign about Race and colour but is it really a case of raceism or general popular perception.
I dont want to get into the debate that Afro-american/european males are faster runners or what but im sure if they put the top 8 100meter atheletes in the picture instead of actors the image would not change and nothing would have been said.
The more people bring up the "POSIBILITY" of a racial undertone the more its going to be construed as racist. As alot of comments in here have pointed out Noone would have noticed.
