Is this ad racist?

They didn't even need the standing white guy. They could've just shown the image of sprinters in the office and communicated the same message.

But, No, I don't believe there was any racial intent whatsoever, but horrible execution that left plenty of room for that misinterpretation. And you'd think the people doing Intel's marketing would be savvy enough to understand that anything that possibly can be misinterpreted racially in today's world will be. Damn surprising nobody caught that before this was published.

 

Probably no people of color on the campaign.

 

"The Intel is the better chip, and he practices to be the better chip, and he's bred to be the better chip because this goes way back to the Binary period. The programmers would breed this big chip with this other big chip so he could have a bigger chip. That's where it all started."

[/Jimmy the Greek]

 

yes. i can see how it could be viewed as racist.

 

Generally, when this question comes up, my thought is there is someone looking for a reason to be indignant. In this case though, I think there's enough there to generate a legitimate gripe. I didn't immediately get the sprinter reference, and it did look like black guys bowing before a white guy.

 

Where's Chuck Taylor? He has the perfect animated gif for this situation.

 

I don't see anyone wearing a Nomex firesuit so I would say it's not at all racerist.

 

Racist or not, it certainly did not have the intended effect of trying to say "speed."

 

How come none of the "sprinters'' are looking up like they would if they were about to start a race?

 

It's hard to look up when you're bowing down to the white man.

 

RACIST!

 

Intel has issued another apology: http://www.intel.com/news/sprintad.htm