Intel has pulled an ad featuring a white man surrounded by six sprinters. According to Nancy Bhagat Vice President and Director of Integrated Marketing at Intel, the McCann-created ad was supposed to "convey the performance capabilities of our processors through the visual metaphor of a sprinter." But complaints across the Internet say the dark-skinned sprinters look like they're bowing down to the white man.
The move has opened up the company to comments on its own blog about the controversy. Some praise the company for making the bold move to issue the apology on the blog and some express their disappointment in the ad. Should more companies use their blogs to allow consumer comments for damage control or does it just make the situation worse? Share your views.
- The Controversy: See the Ad
- The Apology: Intel Statement on Sprinter Ad
- Using Your Blog: Blogs as PR Tools
- Blogs for Damage Control: Is It a Good Idea?
The move has opened up the company to comments on its own blog about the controversy. Some praise the company for making the bold move to issue the apology on the blog and some express their disappointment in the ad. Should more companies use their blogs to allow consumer comments for damage control or does it just make the situation worse? Share your views.
Great move as far as damage control for Intel. Using their blog to apologize literally has their target audience coming to them.
Nevertheless, I do believe it should have been followed with the traditional press release.
Fran Briggs
eMediaCampaigns
Director of Operations
I looked at the ad and to be honest I would not have realized the men were sprinters had I not known, BUT I did not think the were bowing either. We are never going to get beyond this if people insist on trying to find the worst in everything. I think that there are people out there that spend all of thier time trying to find “evil” in everything just to keep things the way they are.