Intel™ Is Bringin' SlaveryBack... Yep

I try not to get all bent out of shape and toss out the race card too often. As anyone who follows this site even casually knows, I spend a good amount of time bashing those who claim false racism (Mike Nifong, Jesse, Al, Isaiah Washington, Mike Vick) since it casts a poor light on legit cases (Genarlow Wilson).

Then again, there are some times when you just gotta look at something and in say, in the words of my main man Tony Costa: "that's f*ckin' racist".

Case in point, this new Intel ad takes the concept of "hidden racism" to a whole' notha' level!!!

Is it really racist or just poorly thought out? The obvious intention here is the show that Chad The IT Guy can get far more done with this kick ass DualCore processor. As anyone even slightly familiar with advanced (ie: more than MySpace) computing knows, Dual Core processors boast awesome performance when compared to their single processor counterparts. So, that much I get: they're simply saying the computer is fast as hell.

However, you can't possibly ignore the related imagery here. Chad The IT Guy, with his Abercrombie and Fitch™ button down, starched Dockers™ and smugly condescending facial expression is saying alot more than "my computer is great!" He seems to be also saying "run Boy, run". The black guys, whom I'll assume are sprinters positioned in the starting blocks for a race, are oddly positioned inside those cubicles. The lighting/tone of the ad is dark, maybe with a bit of sepia around the edges.

Hell, I'll just jump ALL the way out there: this office looks like a scene from Amistad.

How else do you explain the whole "maximize the performance of your employees" bit? Chad, with his oily hair and hush puppies looks like an employee, not an employer. He looks like someone who takes orders, not gives them. If they wanted to drive home the whole point of Chad being a manager, not an IT guy, they probably would have outfitted him in Brooks Brothers™ instead. The image of a white guy (probably an older one) in a suit would have maybe been just as subliminally racist, but at least there would have been some context for the "maximize the performance of your employees" tagline. Otherwise, I can't see how else to interpret this. That sh*t IS racist!

BTW, did anyone else peep the 40% better performance bit? Is it just me, or does 40% sound dangerously close to 3/5 of a man? 40%, 60% what's the difference?

C-O-N-spiracy!!!

Some smug ad exec who put together this campaign for Intel obviously thought he could slide this one through without anyone catching it. Not so fast, buddy.

Thankfully, besides the folks at StartSnitching, I'm not the only one who caught this.

"Maximize the Performance of Your Employees", my a$$.

Intel Ad: Stupid? Or Stupid And Racist? [Gawker]

BONUS! - Intel Ad Exec Blogs Apology [Blogs.Intel.com]