Following an uproar on our sister sites Gizmodo and Gawker, Intel has apologized for this, uh, “insensitive” ad. Intel says on their blog:
Intel’s intent of our ad titled “Multiply Computing Performance and Maximize the Power of Your Employees” was to convey the performance capabilities of our processors through the visual metaphor of a sprinter. We have used the visual of sprinters in the past successfully.
Unfortunately, our execution did not deliver our intended message and in fact proved to be insensitive and insulting. Upon recognizing this, we attempted to pull the ad from all publications but, unfortunately, we failed on one last media placement.
We are sorry and are working hard to make sure this doesn’t happen again.
Nancy Bhagat Vice President, Director of Integrated Marketing
So they caught the whole “insulting” aspect of this before it ran, but too late to stop it?
At least she didn’t use the phrase, “We are taking this very seriously” in her apology. Consumerist is so sick of that hearing that phrase.
Intel Ad: Stupid? Or Stupid And Racist? [Gawker]
Intel Ad Might be Racist, but Boy Does It Make Me Want a Core 2 Duo [Gizmodo]
Sprinter Ad [Intel Blog]
More From Consumerist
-
Man Sues Hooters Over Racial Slur On Receipt
-
Whole Foods Apologizes After Guard Says Autistic Customer Belongs On A Leash
-
Pairing Condolences With A Marketing Pitch: How To Get Social Media Wrong After A Tragedy
-
Gap Should Probably Have Looked At Wikipedia Before Putting “Manifest Destiny” On T-Shirt
-
Intel Wants To Disrupt Cable TV Market, Content Providers Not Playing Along
I’m offended that Intel is too cheap to use different sprinter models in their photographs, and instead copied and pasted the same one over again.
Maybe it’s because i’m a computer guy but I had to look at it for a few minutes before spotting a problem. Frankly, I didn’t even really understand the ad in the first place. I mean, come on. This is a nothing issue to me.
I could see how it would be offensive – to a dumbass. The ad does suck, but racist? No.
i can’t wait for the summer olympics when people are up in arms before every single race…since that’s exactly the position runners take right before they start running. it’s not kneeling as you’d have to be on a knee to be kneeling. it’s not bowing either.
and it says ‘maximize the power of your employees.’ why are people so mad about turning your employees into black sprinters being considered making them more powerful? i’d take that as a compliment if it was me in that ad ready to run into photoshopped clones of myself.
I am offended by the fact that everyone else in this country is turning into a pussy where the slightest thing offends or outrages them.
I’m generally disgusted by the “PC police” and their crusade to sanitize thought everywhere. I’m pretty far from your typical nanny-state, California liberal. I tell people to “get over it, it’s just a joke” on a regular basis. But I looked at this ad and though, “Jesus Harold Christ, who the fuck missed the symbolism here??” What Ancientsociety said above about advertising being aimed squarely at your subconscious is very true, and the implied message here is one clearly derived from the plantations of the Old South.
I think it’s a generational thing. Old fogeys see Black people and go, “Oh my gawd it’s a Black person!”
Everyone else goes, “It’s a person. Sprinting. Shaved head. Spandex (!!). Black.”
Old fogeys need to chill the hell out.
artists’ paintings depicting negro’s in rows picking cotton in plantation times used the natrual lay of the fields and artistic symmetry. it’s a way to show image depth while really only showing a few characters.
modern ads depicting symmetry, that just so happen to be of black men DOES NOT mean they are trying to mimic plantation images of black men in the fields with a white master.
oh btw, i saw an image of elvis kissing the virgin mary in my oatmeal this morning. Quaker Oats is the anti-christ!
Had the mulitplied sprinter been looking up, would the ad have gone over better? The bowed head was the thing that got me…although it took a while to see what it was that was offensive (besides the clunkiness of the ad and message).
Well.. here’s food for thought…
If you noticed a racial problem with this ad perhaps you have race on your mind a little too much. I don’t care whether you saw it from a white perspective or black perspective.. if you saw it, you are too concerned about race.
I didn’t notice a damn thing about it. In fact, the entire picture just look stupid. But that’s another story.
Racism is caused by people focusing on race as an issue. I never noticed there were black men bowing down, in fact, the only reason I even attempted to analyze the ad was because I was told there was something “wrong” with it. The best I came up with was “They didn’t use women as well?” I suppose if there were multicultural women sprinters in that picture they’d be seen as bowing down to man.
If you reversed the picture would people be offended? I doubt it.
Oh well.. time to move on.
Decent adds that ‘may or may not’ have racial undertones can get by. But this one, being a weak ad, people have the right to nail it. If the idiots had just thrown in 1 or 2 white guys, there’d be no fuss.
The only problem I see is the WHITE MAN is the boss. Replace those black sprinters with chinese children knitting walmart shirts, you’ll get the same problem.
@gibsonic: White sprinter with a 2004 Olympic gold medal.
I just don’t see the fuss. It’s obvious to me that the design was not intentionally racist. I submit that the viewer is interjecting a racial connotation that was not there to start with.
Yes I just called you racist.
The wussification of America continues… pansies.
@tschepsit:
nice find, except it was in the 400M.
I personally ran the 400M in high school. I’m white. I did ok and beat a lot of black and white guys. However on anything shorter than the 400M i was routinely beat by black guys.
If you noticed a racial problem with this ad…
@LTS!: then you’re not blind.
Look, I’m not saying the Intel ad is racist but to insist that the black sprinters in the ad are not immediately noticable is just ridiculous. You don’t have to analyze the ad to see that it looks like six black men bowing to a white guy. They should have caught it.
Just because I don’t pretend everyone I look at is the same shade of tan doesn’t mean I’m “too concerned with race”.
I think it would be an interesting exercise for future postings of this sort, to first post a story that says “what’s wrong with this ad?,” followed only by the picture. Let the commenters figure out what the problem is, as a way of guaging the overall “outrage” about a particular ad.
When I first saw this ad online a few days ago, I didn’t immediately notice racial overtones. After reading the story, I saw them. But, in the spirit of disclosure, my ancestors came from Ireland and Norway.
I just think it would be an interesting social experiment to see how many people pick up on the real or imagined subtexts- without pointing them out first.
@trai_dep: Defend racism by injecting ageism. Nice.
@LTS!: I don’t think racism today is “caused” so much as it simply exists, and the problem with this ad, whether intentional or not, is that it reinforces a prejudicial and superficial view of people.
Actually, white people should be offended: the ad is implying that you guys can run vary fast.
Oops… I meant “can’t run very fast.”
I get what the ad is trying to communicate, I understand that the sprinter is in his startup pose, but so what? The imagery is still racist. Was it intentional? Doubtful. Incredibly thoughtless and stupid? Sure.
There are worse incidents of racism, but it’s wrong to dismiss the criticism of this ad as an overreaction. It’s entirely possible that normal people who aren’t evil or backwoods are capable of being racist, simply by being thoughtless. At least Intel recognized there was a problem, instead of being defensive and accusing their critics of being wusses, too PC and overly sensitive, unlike most of the comments here.
@startertan: Um – Bill Gates doesn’t own Intel…
I have to say that I’m pretty surprised at the comments I’ve skimmed through so far, and that I can’t really understand the collective rolling of the eyes. I saw this ad and immediately my jaw dropped. With the media being as hyper-aware as it tends to be with things like this these days, I just cannot figure how this would ever make it into print. Honestly, even if it were just a white guy looking smug and lording over all black employees without all the bowing and the “maximizing the power” business, it would be suspect, in my opinion. Then throw in the broad, sweeping generalizations about work ethic and athleticism, and you have a real mess. And I’m even not black.
Intel is a big corporation. You can bet that this ad had to go through at least a few dozen hands before it went to print. And part of your job as an advertiser is looking at it through a few different sets of eyes and asking yourself how many ways it could possibly be construed. Bottom line, I’m having a hard time believing that the possibility of outrage didn’t cross anyone’s mind at Intel before it was approved.
if it were white sprinters and a black guy standing, would it have been offending?
Dude everyone needs to chill the F*ck out. Its not racist its a ad a bad one but still just an add. I grasped the meaning of the ad as soon as I read it and the thought of “oh my god the massa is lording over his slaves” never crossed my mind until reading some of the posts. This is being blown way out of control.
Oh and if you really want to be racist the white male is the most repressed person in America. We can’t do anything without being branded racist, sexist, ageist and so on. Everyone thinks its ok to talk crap about the whiteys but if it was reversed we would be the bad guy. I can’t even count the amount of times I have heard comics and even just regular people putting down whites, but if it was a white comic OMG your racist.
OMG! Get a life people. What if it were 6 white guys and 1 black guy? Or some other combination? As a white American I’m sick of having tread on eggshells all the time that some people with different skin color will be offended. When/How can I stand up for my white heritige without being branded a racist? There’s Black Pride Month. I’m sure there’s Asian Pride Month somewhere. When is White Pride Month? When can I say I’m proud to be white and not have everyone think I’m a racist-nazi-skinhead? I’m a redheaded boy from So Cal and I’m proud of it.
you know, i was a bit mistaken about all the symmetry in this picture. The white dude isn’t standing exactly centered in the isle and it looks as if the runner on the right at the back of the picture is coming out of the white dude’s arse.
now THAT’S something to get offended about.
Hmmm. Anyone have a life-preserver? Some people are going overboard.
This is simply another classic example of how, regardless of one’s political bent, if you’re an [insert your passion/issue here]-fixated hammer, everything starts to look like a [insert your passion/issue here]-ist nail.
I took one look at it and got the symbolism immediately: Use Intel or a gang of hip-hoppers will mug you, whitey.
It’s totally obvious.
@engunneer:
Shows you how close I was actually looking at it. I thought it was a Microsoft ad. Doh!
@Rectilinear Propagation: Oh, thank God, somebody gets it. I mean, I know being white means you don’t have to think about the racial connotations of stuff if you don’t want to, but I’m always surprised by just how many white people take advantage of that privilege.
I love all the people saying “I didn’t notice anything going on with this ad because I don’t see race!” Liar. Yes you do. You are not “colorblind.” Those are not “nice outdoor tans.” You may have no intention of discriminating against someone of a different race, but to claim that you don’t notice it at all is just insulting everybody’s intelligence.
Everybody, regardless of race or politics, sees the exact same thing when they look at this ad: six black men, bent over double, and a white man in the middle. That’s what is there. Unless you are actually blind, you see that too. It’s okay to acknowledge that someone is black. It’s only the truth.
I would respectfully submit that a black person might be more likely to see racism in this image because he/she has experienced repeated acts of racism, both overt and covert, throughout his/her entire life. This does not make black people who object to the ad “overly sensitive” or “PC police” or pussies or dumbasses or any of the other charming terms used in this thread; it means that they have a different cultural and personal context from which they view images like this. Telling them that their feelings are stupid and wrong is incredibly condescending and inappropriate.
@Pelagius:
you’re showing your age. hip-hoppers haven’t worn spandex since the early 90′s.
just because someone else was racist to you before, that doesn’t mean you are allowed to cry foul if someone else very accidentally and unintentionally does something that you perceive as racist.
the entitlement attitude in this country is unbelievably out of control.
sure, have your own feelings and opinions about the matter, that doesn’t mean YOUR feelings should dictate corporate or public policy when they are clearly your own hang-up.
I think some people just look for a reason to get mad at something. I think the ad is stupid, but not racist.
@gibsonic: They’re wearing the parachute pants now, eh?
@Cumaeansibyl: I just see people in the ad. Is that racist?
actually, this is a stereogram.
if you stare at the white guy long enough, the black guys all look like macro photographs of ticks!
ticks arent people!!!
as a human, i am pissed at this.
Shame on you, Nancy Bhagat Vice President, Director of Integrated Marketing.
@Nemesis_Enforcer:
AHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHA
“The white male is the most repressed person in America.”
No dude, it’s saying ignorant shit like that that makes you be branded racist.
‘Cause you know, the whole damn country is being run by black people and women! I mean, every president we’ve ever had was either black or a woman, and I won’t even mention Congress!
Nemesis, you’re a perfect example of why some people are categorically NOT entitled to their opinion.
@gibsonic: Actually, yes it does, because pointing out that something is or could be construed as racist does not constitute an accusation of conscious racism.
For instance, it’s no longer generally accepted to use the word “Oriental” in reference to a person’s race, but not everybody knows that. Telling someone “hey, it’s better to say ‘Asian’” is not the same thing as saying “you’re a racist.” It’s just a correction that needs to be made.
Not all racist overtones are deliberate. Sensible people know that and will cut you some slack for an accidental offense, but they’re still going to tell you to change what you’re doing because they don’t want you to perpetuate racism unintentionally.
Those who believe that this is a deliberate act of racist propaganda on Intel’s part are exaggerating the matter beyond all reason, but they’re also a very small minority, from what I’ve been able to tell. Everybody else can tell that this is one of those things that happens when your ad agency is staffed with clueless people. Now, if Intel had thrown a fit and refused to pull the ad, then people would start accusing them of being racists.
@inno: Won’t somebody PLEASE think of the WHITE MEN???
you know what guys? im really glad we are having this discussion. knowing is half the battle!
thanks for caring about racism, intel. to show my gratitude, id like to order 10,000 core 2 duos, please.
@CumaeanSibyl:
Thank you for having the cool head to respond to this eloquently and respectfully. I was (and still am) too infuriated by the reek of arrogance and ignorance in some of the expressed opinions to form a coherent thought, but I am glad that someone else can. Thanks.
@CumaeanSibyl: everything you just said is nothing but PC BS.
While I agree certain words are degrading like the “N” word, is that really any worse than calling someone a moronic fuckhead, or stupid cunt?!
It’s a vicious cycle that is getting this country no where. The PC movement make people more aware of every word connotation and visual interpretation that it does nothing but perpetuate the divide by point things out all the time that are racist!
and as a side note for all of you that hate it when people make Office Space references…
yeeeeeeaaaaah….i’m going to need you to go ahead and bend over in a crouched sprinter’s stance that in no way makes you look like you are bowing before me. That would be greeeeeeeat!
That is whack
I am not black and I found the ad to be offensive. People on the this board should read their marketing history to discover how historically minorities have been portrayed poorly in ads in order to sell products. I also find it interesting that there are several comments here from people stating that they don’t understand why such a small ad would cause so much trouble. I find it interesting that some of those same people make a big fuss of more trivial things such as their x customer service didn’t pick up the phone, or their flight was delayed 10 minutes or the UPS guy was late 2 minutes…
everyone is entitled to their opinion. that doesn’t mean their opinion is right.
I couldn’t figure out what the problem was. I didn’t notice that all the sprinters were black and the “boss” was white. I guess I really am colorblind!
Now that it’s been pointed out, I could certainly see how someone could be offended by it.
@CumaeanSibyl:
Oh, because I didn’t notice the racial implications. It can’t possibly be because I didn’t even care. I’m glad you have used your superior intellect to call me a liar.
By the way, nice to see you assumed I am white. Where did you get that from? You simply exemplify my initial statement. If everything in this world is about color to you then all you’ll ever see is color.
Are you telling me that I should look at the people I see walking past me and say, well, he’s black, better watch my wallet, or well he’s white, with faded jeans and a dixie flag walking with his sister/wife, or well he’s asian I bet he can calcluate pi to one million places.
Do you even understand how ludicrous that sounds? Yes, I see people’s skin color, it’s like saying I didn’t see someone wearing a blue shirt. It’s a color, it has nothing to do with anything. I’ve seen people of every color exhibit every range of social behaviors, from intelligence to criminalistic.
When do people move past race as an issue? Why does it have to be an issue? You can be prejudiced against someone for a million different reasons and only one of them is the color of their skin. But somehow this is more important than the other 999,999 reasons… because why? Because in the past some people decided that they would treat Africans as slaves and second class citizens? So, I guess because because the Romans used people of all races as slaves we shouldn’t put people in advertisements because it represents slavery.
Where does it end? When can you finally say to yourself, I need to stop worrying about such things. If you are going to continue the fight against prejudice then good luck, Sisyphus.
@CumaeanSibyl: i would have glossed over it if i’d seen it in a magazine. i’m not actively scanning for what you perceive to be hidden messages.