The newest ad campaign from Intel focuses less on their products — a microprocessor is always less sexy to market than an MP3 with shiny metallic surfaces and rounded corners anyway — and more on the engineers building their products. Take this latest global campaign with Ajay Bhatt, the creator of the USB port and current Intel Fellow and Chief Client Architect of their Mobile Platforms Group.
Except for one thing; that’s not Ajay Bhatt in their commercial; that’s an actor. And if you compare the engineer rock star to the real Ajay Bhatt, the actor looks — hmm, what’s the word we’re looking for, here? He looks more academic. And by academic, I mean “a stereotype of an Indian Engineer.”
According to Bhatt himself, he shrugs off not being part of the commercial due to “being busy,” but he’s an Intel Fellow, and he could be simply toeing the company line or agreeing to PR’s demands that a stereotypical Indian engineer should be playing the part. And if the actor who played him had classically good looks, Asian American blogs would rip the commercial apart for making him look like something he obviously isn’t. So what’s worse — that, or playing up to a stereotypical — and ultimately racialized — stereotype?
What next?
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4 Comments to “New Intel Ad Stars Real Engineers (Except They Don’t)”
John wrote:
I would have to say that if other Intel commercials are highlighting other Intel employees (of all ethnic backgrounds) and are employing better looking actors, then there is no controversy here. I’m sure it is easier for the person shooting the commercial to direct an actor than a non-actor, and a hassle for Ajay Bhatt’s to fly down to LA for a day and spend it shooting a commercial. Or maybe Ajay Bhatt is just camera shy?
I do think that the Indian actor kind of does reinforce the look of an Indian American engineer. I think it would have been funnier if “Ajay Bhatt” would have been a hot Indian Bollywood actor type. But I think engineers of all ethnic backgrounds, including white, are stereotyped as geeky (i.e. anybody watch CBS’s The Big Bang Theory?)
FYI – more info on Intel’s ad campaign in a recent article:
A Tech Company’s Campaign to Burnish Its Brand
The New York Times. May 5th, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/06/business/media/06adco.html
Posted on 26-May-09 at 11:12 am | Permalink
Ed wrote:
I got a different message from it.
It challenges social standards.”Our rockstars aren’t like yours”
or is all part of the ‘date a geek’ movement?
Posted on 26-May-09 at 10:42 pm | Permalink
8Asians.com » Conan O’Brien Interviews Intel’s Ajay Bhatt (The Real One) wrote:
[...] this year, Ernie blogged about Intel’s latest television ad campaign highlighting co-inventor of the USB port Ajay Bhatt. All good, except Bhatt is portrayed by an actor in the commercial, most likely for [...]
Posted on 16-Oct-09 at 9:40 am | Permalink
strangerchat wrote:
ha ha indians are dorky. f*ck intel.
Posted on 19-Oct-09 at 10:14 am | Permalink
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