Intel

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Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, in Silicon Valley. It is the world's largest and highest-valued semiconductor chip manufacturer on the basis of revenue, and is the developer of the x86 series of microprocessors, the processors found in most personal computers (PCs). Intel ranked No. 46 in the 2018 Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by total revenue.[1] Intel is incorporated in Delaware.

Intel Corporation was founded on July 18, 1968 by semiconductor pioneers Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore (of Moore's law), and is associated with the executive leadership and vision of Andrew Grove. The company's name was conceived as portmanteau of the words integrated and electronics, with co-founder Noyce having been a key inventor of the integrated circuit (the microchip). The fact that "intel" is the term for intelligence information also made the name appropriate.[2]

Intel Core 2 Duo Processor Ad

Intel Core 2 Duo Processor Ad.

Intel released an advertisement for a desktop processor in 2007 showing a business-attire dressed white male surrounded by six muscular black men — who are all bowing down in a sprinter's pose that is easily also read as one signifying servitude. The advertisement reads “Multiply computer performance and maximise the power of your employees.”[3]

The ad, which portrayed a white manager standing among six bowed black men, was meant "to convey the performance capabilities of our processors through the visual metaphor of a sprinter," according to a post on an Intel company blog by the company's director of integrated marketing.[4]

Controversy

The ad, prepared by Interpublic Group's McCann-Erickson, featuring a standing Caucasian man in casual business attire surrounded by six crouching African-American sprinters in a tableau many commenters found racially offensive, was pulled by Intel before publication in North America in all but one entry, a Dell catalog, said an Intel spokesperson.

becomes particularly troubling when we consider the historical relationship between the slave trade and the ad industry, who worked in concert with one another in the commodification of black bodies as property to be bought and sold. The enslaved were either advertised in newspapers as purchasable property or identified as missing property when they escaped their slave masters.[5]

Clarification

In Intel admitted that the ad was a mistake. Intel VP and director of integrated marketing Nancy Bhagat said that they did not deliver the execution with their intended message and in fact proved to be insensitive and insulting.

The Intel spokesperson told ChannelWeb that the ad had first run in Europe, where Intel first received complaints about it in June. She said Intel would take steps to avoid such incidents in the future, such as including its existing in-house diversity team in the vetting process for ads. Currently, the diversity team works on different issues, such as hiring.

"Two months ago, we knew of the issue and pulled the ad. We tried to pull all the entries that we had placed, but there was one that made it into the Dell catalog that we didn't manage to pull," the spokesperson said. The ad agency that produced the ad was McCann Erickson, according to the spokesperson. She would not say whether blame for the ad was being laid at the feet of the ad agency or Intel.[6]

References

  1. Fortune 500 Companies 2018: Who Made the List. Retrieved on December 26, 2020.
  2. Intel. Retrieved on December 26, 2020.
  3. Richards, Jonathan (2007). Intel apologises for ‘racist’ computer ad. Retrieved on December 26, 2020.
  4. Grigsby Bates, Karen (2007). Intel Pulls Ad After Racial Backlash. Retrieved on December 26, 2020.
  5. Hassan, Huda (2007). It’s Not Just Pepsi: A Brief History of Racist Commercials and Ad Campaigns. Retrieved on December 26, 2020.
  6. CRN (2007). Intel Apologizes For 'Insulting' Ad. Retrieved on December 26, 2020.