Intel has now openly apologized for its advertisement for its Intel Core 2 Duo. The harsh reality is that the advertisement features six black men/sprinters bowing before a single white man in a shirt and khakis. The ad has caused quite a controversy and been heavily debated in both open and closed forums. The use of a sprinter was meant as a metaphor, but the arrangement was so horrible that it instead looked like a white nerdish guy was dominating six black guys. Someone wasn’t thinking over at Intel, but at least they have the guts to admit it.
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.
