Sunday, August 19, 2007

Intel Core Duo ad controversy

Some people thought this was racist:


This is an actual magazine advertisement from Intel. After people complained about it, the company discontinued the ad and apologized.

Those who were offended by this ad thought the men on the floor were Blacks bowing down to a White/European. Last month, I wrote about the advantages of having mixed-race people in advertising, and this ad is a good example. If everyone in this ad looked multiracial instead of monoracial, nobody would say it's racist because it would be unclear what ethnicity the men are in the first place.

If you're unsure about the ethnicity of a person, it's almost impossible to see them in a racial way. The same goes for advertising; if customers see people in an ad and they have no idea what ethnicity they are, they won't see anything racial about it. But the people in this Intel ad do not look mixed-race, so it was clear to many people what ethnicity they are. Some even saw a racist image.


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1 comment:

Unknown said...

I personally don't think it's that bad, but I fixed it for anyone who does http://deracifying-ads.tumblr.com/post/39547959072/intel-was-in-some-hot-water-for-this-one-in-2007 in about 30 seconds with Color Splash Plus Fx