It's not racist at all. Clearly it is implying that your employees will "sprint" through their work. It's looks nothing like black men bowing down and if you see that then that says more about your mentality.

I personally find it more offensive when people treat blacks as if they're handicaps. They're not as strong as white people so we have to treat them nicely and protect them because they're simply not as strong as white people. That is what a lot of this PC BS sounds like too.

For example, my first sentence in this post COULD be construed to mean "racism doesn't exist and black people are paranoid and hypersensitive." (That is NOT what I meant, of course.) But because there is the possibility that someone could misinterpret it to mean something other than what I intended, does that mean I shouldn't say it? Or moreover, that I should be reprimanded somehow for saying it?

When the Supreme Court examines laws that limit speech, they always specify that the prohibited speech (conspiracy, treason, child pornography, solicitation, copyright infringement, etc.) must be VERY clearly defined. If the definition is vague, then there will be a gray area in which people aren't sure if certain speech is punishable or not, and obviously people will stay out of that gray area, afraid to say things that are actually protected speech. In these cases, the Court says that a vague law will have a "chilling effect" on free speech.

The notion that anything that might possibly be offensive to someone should be taboo would have a MAJOR chilling effect on people's ability to reasonably discuss issues that sorely need discussing.

"Mountain out of a molehill" or not it's pretty obvious what the problem with the ad is.

I didn't realize the sprinters were black. Seriously. On first glance at this ad, I didn't peg them for race at all. I thought "crappy ad", to be sure, and the guy up front had an expression on his face that struck me as unnatural, but that's about the extent of it.

Which isn't entirely typical for me -- I grew up in a tiny little racially-homogeneous community while hearing about racial tensions on the news every night, and so I have some trouble with avoiding undue connotations (which has gotten better over the years, but not as much as I'd like). But when looking at the sprinters, I just thought "atheletes" (wasn't sure if they were sprinters or swimmers ready to jump off a line -- the pose is pretty similar), not "black".

That said, the sprinters can definitely be perceived as bowing down or being subservient to their white boss, and it could've definitely got the same message across in a better manner. Any controversy would've been avoided by not going the cheap route and using the same guy for all six sprinters, and throw a couple of white guys in there.

i'm so fucking tired of people telling me to be PC. bullshit. i've never been PC and i'm not about to start now (i'm 42). if your feelings have been hurt, tough shit. get thicker skin and move on. that's life, baby. while i agree some words have negative connotations, the "N" word, etc. i can remember my grandfather use the word "colored" until the day he died 2 years ago. that's what he was brought up using. he wasn't being racist, just the term at the time of his upbringing. (funny aside, in my office, someone asked for colored paper for something. someone shouted out, "i think the proper term is now "african-american paper". the entire office died laughing, yes, including all the black, asians, indians, whites, etc. of which there is no dominate group.

I can see how the tonsorially challenged might object (and I've victimized myself with DIY haircuts, and may even attempt to become light headed).

The problem was obvious to me when I looked at it.

there isn't a rolleyes big enough to respond to this diatribe.

It gives me pause when people are quick to label and dismiss a matter or people, as you do by claiming this case as mere PC sensationalism or lump everyone who disagrees with you as members of the Sharpton camp.

It's a very simple matter: in a neutral society it is merely a picture, but given the context and history, it causes offense. If someone can't understand or feels the need to argue that it shouldn't cause offense--especially to the people who feel it, maybe he or she should evaluate his or her own perspective.

Yes it hurts to be lumped into a group or have things assumed about you, a lot of people have dealt with such feelings all their lives, for matters more important than an ad, and this is why it's important to draw the line and raise awareness.

It's very convenient and easy to say that race doesn't exist, that it's a human construct and conception, and therefore we should ignore it as though it were a bogeyman. But this bogeyman has very real effects on real people. Ignoring matters will not change things, and for those who are satisfied, why change anything? Some people eat dirt and call it fine, some people complain, and some people complain about the complainers. To the people I lump as the willfully ignorant, taste soil, it'll only make you wiser.

Read a book:
[www.amazon.com]

@CumaeanSibyl:
So the PC police are "perpetuating the divide," by which I presume you mean the racial divide, because they're "point[ing] things out all the time that are racist!"

... in other words, objecting to racism perpetuates racism. I'm not buying it.

Just because you aren't buying it, doesn't mean it isn't the truth. Examples of this are everywhere.

Michael Vick - how some people are able to make his whole situation about race is beyond me, but yet that is exactly what is happening/happened.

Duke Lacrosse team - completely innocent, the stripper made it all up but yet Sharpton and half the black activist in the country had the Duke players crucified before they ever got a day in court. Wouldn't you say it was actually NON-racist of them to desire a black stripper at their party in the first place. Sure the guys are all rich white boys, in a racist world, wouldn't they only want white girls?

The stream of ignorance can flow in both directions. You accuse others of being ignorant or blind to overt or covert racism, but you are easy to show a blind eye when people go around beating the racism war drum and sensationalizing a non-issue to the point where it opens old wounds which is destructive to the cause of racial healing.

Buy it or not, talking about an issue and talking through an issue to resolution are very different things. Sharpton and Co. as much as they wish they were, will never be MLK. They talk to hear themselves speak and for their own gain and popularity. Sharpton is the farthest thing from a Reverend that I've ever seen. Maybe he missed that part in his Bible in the beatitudes where it says, "blessed are the peacemakers, for they will inherent the earth" would anyone call Sharpton a peacemaker? honestly?

Just talking about an issue on the internet or CNN doesn't necessarily help it. Talking through an issue with action steps of healthy change are what makes a difference.

i agree with the comments above about how race is really a nondescript way of classifying people these days in the US. It's not called the melting pot for nonthing

@CUMAEANSIBYL: I don't see "race". I see a color. With the mixing of color in this world how can anyone be sure what "race" someone is. If you mix black and white, you will get a variation of skin colors, is this person black, are they white? What race are they? That I suppose is up to the individual person to decide.. if there even is such a thing. So what's the point?

I don't even know what race is anymore. I'll believe it to be a color, but we're all different colors so what difference does it make. One person is lighter another is darker.. so what? Even within the boundaries (if you can define such a thing) of black, white, yellow, red, brown, and so on there are variations of colors. I think the problem is that race gets confused with ethnicity because in many cases they run parallel with each other. ie. black = African-American... well.. does it? I have plenty of black friends who refuse to refer to themselves as African-Americans. As they say, they've never even been to Africa. It's like a white person stating they are Irish-German-Anglo-Franco-Americans. There are a lot of dark skinned people in Haiti, are they all African-Haitians? It's just patently absurd the terms we use in this country to refer to people.

Certainly there is a history of negative connotation towards the term "black man". There are people who say, I'm brown, not black. From a technical standpoint I suppose they are correct, but you know it's like playing the color game in an Eddie Bauer catalog. Look at that red shirt, that's not red, it's tomato. Oooookay, whatever.

People are called white, but they are really pink or something else, certainly not white. So what, it's close enough. Everyone wants to break that association of negativity with "black" but if you keep referring to it then you will carry it along into whatever term you use. Just get over it and move on. Ignore it and it ceases to be an issue. Mind you I mean the issue of "black" as a negative term not racism which will never go away.

If you believe the rock will get somewhere, then by all means keep on pushing, but don't be surprised when others begin to see your exuberance over moving the rock an inch as nothing monumental, especially when the rock will end up back where it started anyway.

Why don't we just pass a law that says minorities must only be depicted in the media as lawyers and doctors (ala Cosby Show)? Oh, anf they must be good doctors and lawyers - not the evil type.

there are actually two sprinters. look at the shading on the ribcages, the positioning of the small finger, and the shading on the muscles of the upper arm.

I don't really see the problem either. They took a single runner and duplicated him. It's not like they purposefully found six black guys.

True to your name you're playing Cassandra for a lot of ignorant people here. You are a trooper for responding so intelligently and respectfully. Don't you find it interesting how people feel the need to prove you wrong?

The thin-skinned people who recognize that racism may exist, even in the highly suggestion-saturated medium of advertising may not be colorblind, but those that accuse them of seeing things that aren't there may simply be like the colorblind-incapable of seeing what's actually there.

Being politically correct, playing lip service and being inoffensive out of fear and obligation, is as offensive to me as it is to you. There is a difference between being PC and recognizing that though one may not be deliberately racist (e.g. i grew up with kids who sincerely thought that jews grew horns, blacks had an extra bone in their leg, etc.), to remain ignorant or in denial is to allow the perpetuation of racist ideas.

Consider a VW ad with a blond haired and blue-eyed factory manager surrounded by hunched over rabbis assembling cars: "The new Jetta is 100% Kosher."* If you had no awareness of the holocaust or the use of slave labor in concentration camps, it'd simply be a stupid ad. But i suspect most of you would recognize that it'd be pretty twisted. To the rest of you, ignorance is indeed bliss no?

Now that I have invoked Godwin's Law, comments are over.

*Note to VW AG: MAKE THIS AD.

Al Sharpton is not the emperor of black people!

Now, I forwarded this ad to a few of my fellow educated, successful, Black folks and asked "What's wrong with his picture", and 20 out of 20 of us agree: YAWN!

The sista has spoken. You can stop arguing now.

This is unbelievably stupid. Racism does exist in the world today, anyone that says that it doesn't is an idiot. I am someone who has been the victim of racism. But, I really fail to see how this ad is "insensitive" or "insulting."
Give me a break.

@gibsonic: So the PC police are "perpetuating the divide," by which I presume you mean the racial divide, because they're "point[ing] things out all the time that are racist!"

... in other words, objecting to racism perpetuates racism. I'm not buying it.

@Paradise: Nobody's required to scan media for hidden messages. Some people are just more likely, because of personal experience or cultural background, to see certain subtexts. It's not fair to reject their observations out of hand because we didn't see the same thing on first glance.

@LTS!: I did not say that people who say they don't care about race are liars. I said that people who say they don't see race are liars. As you said, people see race in the same way they see a shirt color or a hairstyle: it's a set of visible characteristics that you can't choose not to observe. How you choose to react is, of course, an individual matter. What I'm saying is that some people are so determined to prove themselves entirely without prejudice that they will claim they "don't see race," which is patently absurd. What they mean to say is that they don't attach any particular significance to race, which is laudable if true, but not at all the same thing as "not seeing."

With that said, I would point out that there are generally two kinds of people who "make an issue" of race: the people who suffer racial discrimination every day of their lives, and the people who perpetrate that discrimination. The rest of us, if we so choose, can afford not to pay attention.

Where does it end? When can you finally say to yourself, I need to stop worrying about such things. If you are going to continue the fight against prejudice then good luck, Sisyphus.

So my choices are to either pretend that an injustice doesn't exist or to engage in a futile, hopeless battle against it while people make fun of me?

Well, that rock's not going to shove itself.

[consumerist.com]

She is already in the sprint position! Is that just as racist???

hahahahahahahahahahaha that's fucking great!!!! i can't believe that out of the fifty or so marketing executives surely involved in this project, no one noticed the possible implication of the ad. to busy sending memos about wacky hat fridays i'm guesstimating.

What's distressing is the cavalier attitude by other people about the iconography. It's pretty clear that the reason many people don't "see" the problem in the add is that we have grown accustomed to seeing images of black men as second tier (to put it mildly).

In most stories, movies, video games, what have you, the white male is the leader. The black man, even if he is depicted positively, is usually just a sidekick. We have come to accept this structure as normal. Obviously there are varying degrees of this structure, from "Steppin' Fetchit" to Lando Calrissian. It's not necessarily racist to have a white male lead, and a black man as a supporting character.

Think about the times when those roles are reversed. They're rare, and usually generate some commentary ("can a black leading man open a movie?").

While there is in fact a tendency of extremists, on both sides, to react negatively to certain comments (from "you racist!" to "you're aiding and abetting the enemy!"), this does not mean that every objection is necessarily meritless.

Here, the iconography used is so beyond the pale, that a failure to recognize it or appreciate it once highlighted, indicates a troubling level of conditioning, or acceptance of the "white man first, black man second" iconography.

Why not just hand out Lithium? Lithium works faster.

Oh, because I didn't notice the racial implications. It can't possibly be because I didn't even care. I'm glad you have used your superior intellect to call me a liar.

By the way, nice to see you assumed I am white. Where did you get that from? You simply exemplify my initial statement. If everything in this world is about color to you then all you'll ever see is color.

Are you telling me that I should look at the people I see walking past me and say, well, he's black, better watch my wallet, or well he's white, with faded jeans and a dixie flag walking with his sister/wife, or well he's asian I bet he can calcluate pi to one million places.

Do you even understand how ludicrous that sounds? Yes, I see people's skin color, it's like saying I didn't see someone wearing a blue shirt. It's a color, it has nothing to do with anything. I've seen people of every color exhibit every range of social behaviors, from intelligence to criminalistic.

When do people move past race as an issue? Why does it have to be an issue? You can be prejudiced against someone for a million different reasons and only one of them is the color of their skin. But somehow this is more important than the other 999,999 reasons... because why? Because in the past some people decided that they would treat Africans as slaves and second class citizens? So, I guess because because the Romans used people of all races as slaves we shouldn't put people in advertisements because it represents slavery.

Where does it end? When can you finally say to yourself, I need to stop worrying about such things. If you are going to continue the fight against prejudice then good luck, Sisyphus.

I am not black and I found the ad to be offensive. People on the this board should read their marketing history to discover how historically minorities have been portrayed poorly in ads in order to sell products. I also find it interesting that there are several comments here from people stating that they don't understand why such a small ad would cause so much trouble. I find it interesting that some of those same people make a big fuss of more trivial things such as their x customer service didn't pick up the phone, or their flight was delayed 10 minutes or the UPS guy was late 2 minutes...

While I agree certain words are degrading like the "N" word, is that really any worse than calling someone a moronic fuckhead, or stupid cunt?!

It's a vicious cycle that is getting this country no where. The PC movement make people more aware of every word connotation and visual interpretation that it does nothing but perpetuate the divide by point things out all the time that are racist!

and as a side note for all of you that hate it when people make Office Space references...

yeeeeeeaaaaah....i'm going to need you to go ahead and bend over in a crouched sprinter's stance that in no way makes you look like you are bowing before me. That would be greeeeeeeat!

thanks for caring about racism, intel. to show my gratitude, id like to order 10,000 core 2 duos, please.

@inno: Won't somebody PLEASE think of the WHITE MEN???

@gibsonic: Actually, yes it does, because pointing out that something is or could be construed as racist does not constitute an accusation of conscious racism.

For instance, it's no longer generally accepted to use the word "Oriental" in reference to a person's race, but not everybody knows that. Telling someone "hey, it's better to say 'Asian'" is not the same thing as saying "you're a racist." It's just a correction that needs to be made.

Not all racist overtones are deliberate. Sensible people know that and will cut you some slack for an accidental offense, but they're still going to tell you to change what you're doing because they don't want you to perpetuate racism unintentionally.

Those who believe that this is a deliberate act of racist propaganda on Intel's part are exaggerating the matter beyond all reason, but they're also a very small minority, from what I've been able to tell. Everybody else can tell that this is one of those things that happens when your ad agency is staffed with clueless people. Now, if Intel had thrown a fit and refused to pull the ad, then people would start accusing them of being racists.

"The white male is the most repressed person in America."

No dude, it's saying ignorant shit like that that makes you be branded racist.

'Cause you know, the whole damn country is being run by black people and women! I mean, every president we've ever had was either black or a woman, and I won't even mention Congress!

Nemesis, you're a perfect example of why some people are categorically NOT entitled to their opinion.

ticks arent people!!!

as a human, i am pissed at this.

Shame on you, Nancy Bhagat Vice President, Director of Integrated Marketing.

@Cumaeansibyl: I just see people in the ad. Is that racist?

@gibsonic: They're wearing the parachute pants now, eh?

I think some people just look for a reason to get mad at something. I think the ad is stupid, but not racist.

the entitlement attitude in this country is unbelievably out of control.

sure, have your own feelings and opinions about the matter, that doesn't mean YOUR feelings should dictate corporate or public policy when they are clearly your own hang-up.

you're showing your age. hip-hoppers haven't worn spandex since the early 90's.

@Rectilinear Propagation: Oh, thank God, somebody gets it. I mean, I know being white means you don't have to think about the racial connotations of stuff if you don't want to, but I'm always surprised by just how many white people take advantage of that privilege.

I love all the people saying "I didn't notice anything going on with this ad because I don't see race!" Liar. Yes you do. You are not "colorblind." Those are not "nice outdoor tans." You may have no intention of discriminating against someone of a different race, but to claim that you don't notice it at all is just insulting everybody's intelligence.

Everybody, regardless of race or politics, sees the exact same thing when they look at this ad: six black men, bent over double, and a white man in the middle. That's what is there. Unless you are actually blind, you see that too. It's okay to acknowledge that someone is black. It's only the truth.

I would respectfully submit that a black person might be more likely to see racism in this image because he/she has experienced repeated acts of racism, both overt and covert, throughout his/her entire life. This does not make black people who object to the ad "overly sensitive" or "PC police" or pussies or dumbasses or any of the other charming terms used in this thread; it means that they have a different cultural and personal context from which they view images like this. Telling them that their feelings are stupid and wrong is incredibly condescending and inappropriate.

Shows you how close I was actually looking at it. I thought it was a Microsoft ad. Doh!

I took one look at it and got the symbolism immediately: Use Intel or a gang of hip-hoppers will mug you, whitey.

It's totally obvious.

This is simply another classic example of how, regardless of one's political bent, if you're an [insert your passion/issue here]-fixated hammer, everything starts to look like a [insert your passion/issue here]-ist nail.

now THAT'S something to get offended about.

OMG! Get a life people. What if it were 6 white guys and 1 black guy? Or some other combination? As a white American I'm sick of having tread on eggshells all the time that some people with different skin color will be offended. When/How can I stand up for my white heritige without being branded a racist? There's Black Pride Month. I'm sure there's Asian Pride Month somewhere. When is White Pride Month? When can I say I'm proud to be white and not have everyone think I'm a racist-nazi-skinhead? I'm a redheaded boy from So Cal and I'm proud of it.

Dude everyone needs to chill the F*ck out. Its not racist its a ad a bad one but still just an add. I grasped the meaning of the ad as soon as I read it and the thought of "oh my god the massa is lording over his slaves" never crossed my mind until reading some of the posts. This is being blown way out of control.

Oh and if you really want to be racist the white male is the most repressed person in America. We can't do anything without being branded racist, sexist, ageist and so on. Everyone thinks its ok to talk crap about the whiteys but if it was reversed we would be the bad guy. I can't even count the amount of times I have heard comics and even just regular people putting down whites, but if it was a white comic OMG your racist.

Intel is a big corporation. You can bet that this ad had to go through at least a few dozen hands before it went to print. And part of your job as an advertiser is looking at it through a few different sets of eyes and asking yourself how many ways it could possibly be construed. Bottom line, I'm having a hard time believing that the possibility of outrage didn't cross anyone's mind at Intel before it was approved.

There are worse incidents of racism, but it's wrong to dismiss the criticism of this ad as an overreaction. It's entirely possible that normal people who aren't evil or backwoods are capable of being racist, simply by being thoughtless. At least Intel recognized there was a problem, instead of being defensive and accusing their critics of being wusses, too PC and overly sensitive, unlike most of the comments here.

When I first saw this ad online a few days ago, I didn't immediately notice racial overtones. After reading the story, I saw them. But, in the spirit of disclosure, my ancestors came from Ireland and Norway.

I just think it would be an interesting social experiment to see how many people pick up on the real or imagined subtexts- without pointing them out first.

@LTS!: then you're not blind.

Look, I'm not saying the Intel ad is racist but to insist that the black sprinters in the ad are not immediately noticable is just ridiculous. You don't have to analyze the ad to see that it looks like six black men bowing to a white guy. They should have caught it.

Just because I don't pretend everyone I look at is the same shade of tan doesn't mean I'm "too concerned with race".

I personally ran the 400M in high school. I'm white. I did ok and beat a lot of black and white guys. However on anything shorter than the 400M i was routinely beat by black guys.

Yes I just called you racist.

The wussification of America continues... pansies.

The only problem I see is the WHITE MAN is the boss. Replace those black sprinters with chinese children knitting walmart shirts, you'll get the same problem.

If you noticed a racial problem with this ad perhaps you have race on your mind a little too much. I don't care whether you saw it from a white perspective or black perspective.. if you saw it, you are too concerned about race.

I didn't notice a damn thing about it. In fact, the entire picture just look stupid. But that's another story.

Racism is caused by people focusing on race as an issue. I never noticed there were black men bowing down, in fact, the only reason I even attempted to analyze the ad was because I was told there was something "wrong" with it. The best I came up with was "They didn't use women as well?" I suppose if there were multicultural women sprinters in that picture they'd be seen as bowing down to man.

If you reversed the picture would people be offended? I doubt it.

Oh well.. time to move on.

modern ads depicting symmetry, that just so happen to be of black men DOES NOT mean they are trying to mimic plantation images of black men in the fields with a white master.

oh btw, i saw an image of elvis kissing the virgin mary in my oatmeal this morning. Quaker Oats is the anti-christ!

I think it's a generational thing. Old fogeys see Black people and go, "Oh my gawd it's a Black person!"

Everyone else goes, "It's a person. Sprinting. Shaved head. Spandex (!!). Black."

Old fogeys need to chill the hell out.

and it says 'maximize the power of your employees.' why are people so mad about turning your employees into black sprinters being considered making them more powerful? i'd take that as a compliment if it was me in that ad ready to run into photoshopped clones of myself.

Maybe it's because i'm a computer guy but I had to look at it for a few minutes before spotting a problem. Frankly, I didn't even really understand the ad in the first place. I mean, come on. This is a nothing issue to me.

@lore:
They just adjusted the lighting on the different copies of the image. Its the same picture 6 times. 3 of which were flipped using the mirror button. The ones in the back have a greater amount of lighting because they are closer to the window. The whold thing probably took an hour to put together.

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)

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

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.

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.

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.

@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.

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.

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.

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

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!

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.

@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....

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?

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.

@mopar_man:

I find that offensive!

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

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

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.

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.

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?

@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. :-/

@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

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.

@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.

@iMike: My thoughts exactly.

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

Oh, brother...

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

Oh, brother...

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

Yeah. Sprinters are never black.

@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.

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.