Black Men Bowing Down: Intel's Marketing Misstep
By Yoji Cole
August 20, 2007
Does the following idea sound like a marketing mistake? Take six muscularly built, topless black men and have them bow to an average-looking white man dressed in khaki pants and a blue, button-down shirt.
If you winced when picturing that scenario as an advertisement, then you did more than Intel Corp.'s marketing department did when they created the print advertisement titled "Multiply Computing Performance and Maximize the Power of Your Employees."
Following the release of that print advertisement, Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel is apologizing for its marketing misstep.
The ad was supposed to convey the performance capabilities of Intel's computer processors by linking its ability to that of six black-male sprinters. But instead, the picture of six muscular black men bowing before a white man came across as culturally insensitive and racist. The blog Afropologe asked, "Do black people even work at Intel?"
"When it comes down to it, Intel equates these Black men ... to technology, to machines, to tools that white men ... can buy, sell, use and control and with no tough feelings--I mean look at the smug smile on that guy's face," wrote Afropologe.
Gizmodo, a technology blog, also commented on the connotation of a white man surveying a group of black men who are bowing at his feet. "One of Intel's latest ad's shows six athletic black dudes bowing down before a dorky white guy in khaki pants," reads Gizmodo. "Lousy, barely subliminal racist advertising or just plain lousy advertising?"
Blog site The Register asked why the ad wasn't red-flagged by one or more of the many executives who undoubtedly eyed the ad before it went to print. "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," wrote The Register.
Intel reportedly pulled the ad from hundreds of publications in response, identified specific but undisclosed steps in its ad-review process and said it would rely on them and "just more common sense," reported Indo-Asian News Service.
An Intel statement released by Nancy Bhagat, vice president and director of Integrated Marketing, read: "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."
Readers' Comments
Posted: Monday, May 11, 2009
Black Men Bowing Down: Intel's Marketing Misstep
While I applaud the quick response by Intel to this blunder, I'm still left wondering if companies like this have enough forethought to address the root cause? I'm left wondering what are they going to do in terms of hiring, training and retention so that they eventually get a workforce that includes people informed enough to catch blunders like this BEFORE they air. Until Corporate America abandons its practice of "intellectual inbreeding" where everyone at the top ranks looks, thinks, and acts the same way - we're going to continue to see blunders such as this. Let's just say, I'm going to buy stock in Diversity, Inc - you'll have so much to comment on over the next several decades (at the rate we're going) the subject matter will never fade away.
lori washington
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Posted: Tuesday, May 05, 2009
Black Men Bowing Down: Intel's Marketing Misstep
Basically they were too cheap and lazy to hire six different models and used one picture of a black sprinter over and over. The fact that they were so clueless as to not recognize what the result looks like is crazy. This is where education can make a difference. I don't believe there was a bad intent here, but one would hope that SOMEONE would have noticed that it did not look good before they printed it. It would have had a completely different tone if there was diversity in the models!
Kristin Rupprecht
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Posted: Wednesday, Apr 22, 2009
Black Men Bowing Down: Intel's Marketing Misstep
How could something so obvious be missed??? I believe they knew the message and stir it would cause. Eventually everything comes to light.
Cathy Jones
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Posted: Monday, Apr 20, 2009
Black Men Bowing Down: Intel's Marketing Misstep
This article highlights a little discussed fact about high-tech companies and the people they employ. Nowhere is the divide between non-Asian people of color and Whites greater than on the campuses of the world's high tech companies, and as technology plays a greater role in the distribution of wealth and power in the global economy this embalance will be the source of even greater conflicts. The lack of knowledge of this ever increasing segment of the world's population by those controling the development, implementation of technology will continue to widen the gulf between people along color lines.
Coleman Hamlin
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Posted: Thursday, Apr 16, 2009
Black Men Bowing Down: Intel's Marketing Misstep
Intel should just reverse the Ad and have a Black Man with a bull whip and 6 white men bowing.
jack mart
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Posted: Monday, Sep 22, 2008
Black Men Bowing Down: Intel's Marketing Misstep
Unbelievable that this still trips us up. Vetting ads so as not to offend needs to be standard. Kudos to Nancy Bhagat and Intel for stepping up quickly and decisively with the right response. It's an excellent show of integrity in response to an error.
Marsha Keeffer
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Posted: Monday, Aug 11, 2008
Black Men Bowing Down: Intel's Marketing Misstep
What a wonderful article exposing Intel's MisSteps.
waseem khan
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