Comments on: New Intel Ad Stars Real Engineers (Except They Don’t)

By: strangerchat

strangerchat — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 15:14:48 +0000

ha ha indians are dorky. f*ck intel.

By: 8Asians.com » Conan O’Brien Interviews Intel’s Ajay Bhatt (The Real One)

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 16:40:25 +0000

[...] 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 [...]

By: Ed

Ed — Wed, 27 May 2009 06:42:53 +0000

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?

By: John

John — Tue, 26 May 2009 19:12:31 +0000

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