I really don't see what the big deal is...I mean, I can see why people would take this as a racist ad, but I honestly doubt I'd have noticed that if it wasn't pointed out. Kinda like the PSP ads with the white and black chicks.

@AlteredBeast: I must be as insensitive as you and Intel because I stared at the ad forever before figuring out the problem.

And I must also be a complete idiot because I swear "It's offensive to bald people?" actually crossed my mind.

Yeah. Sprinters are never black.

Oh, brother...

No, wait - make that "Oh, brotha..."

Oh, brother...

No, wait! make that "Oh, brotha..."

Much. Ado. About nothing.

Intel should apologize for shitty advertising, if anything.

Right, what could possibly be offensive about a picture of six black men kneeling before a smirking white man.

Gawker making a big deal out of nothing? No!

You're right, not all that much in this case.

Silly sprinters. You're all just going to hit into eachother.

@iMike: My thoughts exactly.

@Dangerdog: Now there's a youtube video that would be fun to watch.

Gimme a break. People really work hard to make mountains out of molehills.

@B: Agreed.

And I wouldn't be so quick to say "Much ado about nothing". Advertising is, in many ways, covert and subtle, attempting to bypass your conscious efforts to block it out. And this ad succeeds in working subconsciously, just look at most of the responses - most of us had to have the racist message pointed out before we noticed it (myself included).

Here's the smirking white professional with his physically fit, black subordinates. While it may not be as overt as having him be a white plantation owner surrounded with kneeling slaves, it's still racist.

It would be insulting if they were actually kneeling...which they're not.

Stupid? Yes.
Insulting? Seems like everyone's looking for an opportunity anymore.

It does look more like obeisance than sprinting.

so people are offended by cloning right?...because it's the same black sprinter PS'd into 6 different places on the picture.

if nothing else the "sprinters" are showing what all cubicle dwellers do metaphorically all the time... "assume the position"

@gibsonic: That's the problem. You're telling me they couldn't get an ethnic mix of 6 different sprinters? Come on! The fact that it's one guy ps'd 6x just reinforces the stereotype that black people are homogenous and lacking individual identities

I have to say I stared at the ad for a long while before reading the comments and never figured out what the big deal was. I had to read the comments before I realized the ad was considered racial. I have 2 art degrees and have studied visual arts and messaging for years. When I looked at this ad all I saw was poorly directed sprinters. I also wondered why an Intel ad had not a single computer in the picture. Race never came to mind. I saw runners with nice outdoor tans, a shitty ad and a photo that did not showcase the actual product being advertised. So Intel's marketing dept sucks. So does every other aspect of the company. I don't see what the big deal is. I agree with previous comments, "mountains out of mole hills".

@ancientsociety:

The whole idea is "multiplying" in this ad, so it NEEDS to be one person PS'd over and over. Perhaps it stands out more when that person is black.

Or, it could be several different black guys, and you guys just think they all look the same. :-/

Wow. You really have to wonder what marketing firms are thinking when they come up with something like this and no one has warning bells. So much for cultural diversity in the workplace. I literally gasped the first time I saw this ad. You have minorities bowing down to 'the man' as well as all subservient 'employees' being minority men. No one else sees a problem with this?

oh come on...

it's actually likely that some artsy fartsy graphics designer was going for a cleaner/simplified image. having. It's symmetry and symmetry is beautiful and pleasing to the eyes.

I suspect you and other "Al Sharpton's" would be crying foul if it didn't have ANY black athletes and used a white sprinter PS'd 6 times saying..."Why did they have to PS a white guy 6 times instead of using an ethnic mix."

They were probably trying to save $ by only hiring 1 athlete.

Last I checked there weren't too many successful WHITE sprinters...all of the ones I can remember have been black.

I saw the problem as soon as I looked at it, but I wonder if I would have if I had seen the ad independent of this article now. I mean, the headline/opening blurb may have had me looking for something at which to be offended. However, I think once you see the issue, the existence of the guy in the middle is a little more than merely uncomfortable. He's a tit. No one would bow to him, especially not six well-muscled athletes.

@AlteredBeast:

after looking at it further, i do still think it is the same person but was photographed from both sides so that they wouldn't have an unnatural mirror image effect.

THEY AREN'T BOWING!

Have you people never watched a track meet?!?!

Sigh. I think it would be better to focus on honest-to-god racism rather than this kind of petty crap. People who get up-in-arms every time a Rorschach Ink Blot rubs them the wrong way are a distraction from more serious issues. It does nothing but detract from their cause.

Wait, isn't that sprinter in the back right of the image white? At least looks half...

Hell, I think this is a case of someone FINALLY showing the truth - bosses prefer their employees bent over. After all, companies are always giving their workers the shaft...

This advertisement is insulting to clones everywhere. Shame, Intel, shame!

I think all companies should just give up advertising. You know there's people out there who just live to find something offensive about everything.

@mopar_man:

I find that offensive!

See the words "Leap Ahead" right next to the Intel logo...

MAYBE...just MAYBE...they were trying to use the imagery of runners read to leap to express in a static image the idea of motion...

because anyone who has ever seen a sprint event from the Olympics or any high school track meet will know that when the runners hear that gun they LEAP off those blocks with great energy to get them going.

i find it offensive that they show such a pretty cubicle environment with so many windows...are they trying to make me feel inferior!

A] Not actually racist. Intel was not trying to insult black people.

B] Still stupid. If tech bloggers are able to spot the inadvertent connoctation, should some idiot in marketing do the same with the copy before it's published?

@gibsonic: Well I'm far from being an "Al Sharpton" - I'm white, not a racist, and I disagree with his "method" - but I'm smart enough to realize that advertising is a form of propaganda.

@AlteredBeast: 6 different black men, all holding the EXACT same position? I think not....

I think the people that find the ad racist are racists. Jumping up and down and going nuts everytime something could possibly, maybe have some racial message that might be construed does nothing to help equality. I'm actually proud of myself that I didn't see anything racist in the ad until some nutjobs pointed it out.

Lots of things can be taken lots of different ways. Like all the people that insist on finding metaphors in Tolkien when the guy insisted all his life that there were none, it's just a story.

People will distort anything to their own means when given the opportunity.

I don't see anything wrong with this ad. Until I read the comments regarding what the commotion and "uproar" was about, race never crossed my mind.

People need to lighten the f**k up!

Nothing is worng with this picture, so long as they aren't using performance enhancing drugs.

Honestly there's nothing wrong with the ad... except that their advertising department is so cheap that they wouldn't purchase photographs of multiple sprinters and instead just bought one to fill up all the cubicles. Than again I guess all the cores are supposed to be the same...

Maybe they can use the 'but we wanted a streamlined appearance' excuse but having the 'IT manager' or whatever he is off center is bs.

It's just a really bad ad. No, not because it's potentially racially offensive but because it's just really bad execution.

At first glance, I can see how people might think this is racist, but now I can see exactly why Intel chose to set up the ad the way they did.

Intel is trying to advertise their multiple-core processors by using sprinter clones. They couldn't have used a diverse group of sprinters, or else they wouldn't have been clones. Therefore Intel had to pick ONE person to be the sprinter (and clones). I just Googled it, and it turns out that the fastest sprinter in the world is in fact a black man, Jamaican sprinter Asafa Powell. So, by using a black man as the sprinter and clones, Intel is trying to say "Our processor is the fastest" by using factually correct visual representations.

Putting a white man in the middle though probably wasn't the smartest idea, but they were just trying to play to their biggest customer base. I don't have any statistics on hand to back it up, but I think it's safe to say that in the United States, the majority of CEOs and IT buyers (the audience for which the ad is intended) are white men.

So I think Intel had solid reasonings for the decisions they made for the ad, but during the review process, someone should have realized that in today's racially hyper-sensitive culture, it was probably a bad idea.

who wants some watermelon and fried chicken? I'm hungry.

@AlteredBeast: The PSP ads were even dumber, the people who were determined to be offended ignored the rest of the ad campaign, even when it was waved right in their face.

Where's Al Sharpton? Shouldn't he be on the news right about now demanding Bill Gates resignation since he's demeaned and hurt every bald, dark tan/black track runner in the universe?

It took me a few minutes to figure out what was wrong with the ad too. I thought it was b/c you're not allowed to be half-nude at work...unless you work at hooters or a t!ttee bar.

"Mountain out of a molehill" or not it's pretty obvious what the problem with the ad is. Don't several people have to look at these things before they go into print? How did nobody catch this?

I just don't think the visual works period. The sprinters just don't make sense there. The text says "maximize the power" of your employees, not their speed and even then it'd make more sense to show them moving quickly. They're not actually going anywhere yet in the ad. I think showing the sprinters running with suitcases and business ties would have worked better. But that's just me.

I agree with most of the posters. It took me a long time looking at the ad to realize what people are saying is wrong with it. In my opinion, people are only trivializing the real issue of racism when they try to nitpick everything for any hint of anything that could possibly be construed as racist just so they can whine about it.

If we all could just admit,
that we're all racist... a little bit
Even though we all know
That it's wrong,
Maybe it would help us
Get along.

Princeton: Oh, Christ do I feel good.
Gary Coleman: Now there was a fine upstanding black man!

@supra606:

exactly... aseop's fable of the Boy Who Cried Wolf

if people cry foul for every little thing that really ISN'T a foul, they lose their credibility when something is really wrong. (i.e. Al Sharpton)