Intel, the world’s largest semiconductor company, was forced to apologise after a print ad circulated by the company around blog-land invited wrath from around the world over its racist connotation.
The ad showed six black sprinters crouched in the start position in front of a white man wearing a shirt and chinos (khaki pants) in an office. In a statement on its website on Friday, Intel said: “We have made a bad mistake. I know why and how, but that simply doesn’t make it better.”
It was intended that the advertisement “convey the performance capabilities of our processors through a number of visual metaphors”, Don MacDonald, director of global marketing for the company, wrote. “Unfortunately, this ad using African-American sprinters did not deliver our intended message, and in fact proved to be culturally insensitive and insulting.” Gizmodo, a technology blog, spotted the connotation of a white master surveying a group of black workers bowed at his feet.
On the back foot, Intel said it had pulled the ad from hundreds of publications, but was unable to stop two which had already shipped.
