We made a bad mistake. I know why and how, but that simply doesn't make it better.
The intent behind our ad campaign "Multiply Computing Performance and Maximize the Power of Your Employees" was to convey the performance capabilities of our processors through a number of visual metaphors. Unfortunately, while we have used a visual of sprinters in the past appropriately, this ad of using African-American sprinters did not deliver our intended message and in fact proved to be culturally insensitive and insulting.
Upon recognizing this, I directed that the creative be destroyed and this be immediately pulled from hundreds of planned or potential publications worldwide. I am aware of four remaining instances which were in flight, but we believe they have been intercepted and destroyed; we were not able to intercept two instances that had already shipped or are in transit. In addition, we continue to search for any remaining placements that may still exist that we are unaware of.
We are sincerely sorry and have identified specific steps covering heightened cultural sensitivity, our review and approval process, and just using more common sense to ensure that this does not happen again.
—Don MacDonald, vice president of sales and marketing and director of global marketing