Worth keeping tabs on this one – New York, via its next gubernatorial candidate, Andrew Cuomo, filed an antitrust action against Intel. From NY Times:
The lawsuit charges that Intel violated state and federal laws by abusing its dominant position in the chip market to keep its main rival, Advanced Micro Devices, at bay. Intel has faced similar lawsuits in Asia and Europe, and in May the European Commission fined the company a record $1.45 billion for antitrust violations.
These cases have largely revolved around deals Intel had struck with computer makers and retailers that, regulators said, pressured them into picking the company’s microprocessors — which serve as the central chip inside personal computers and servers — instead of competing products from A.M.D.
Speaking of Intel, am I alone in finding their latest ad campaign pompous? The USB’s co-inventor walks into a room to wild adoration: “Your rock stars aren’t like our rock stars.” A guy makes – a + and giggles: “Your jokes aren’t like our jokes.” And then, a bunch of efficient hummers alertly offer the Intel jingle.
Compare the theme to several other recent ad campaigns. Bank of America shows a bunch of folks (an attempt at a sort-of visual quilt of American workers) walking forward to suggest that we, collectively, are moving past the financial pits. Mac-guy is supposed to represent everyman – or, hip everyman – excluding only the red staple holders of America. PC (Microsoft) celebrates over-achievers and they are a bit neo-geeky, but the commercials includes the audience as a potential member of the “I’m a PC (and saving the world with smart-_____ )” club.
So Intel took a new turn with such explicit elitism. It makes some sense – we want elite technicians making our microchips. But, the ads leave a sour note. They are almost funny, and could have kept the same theme. I think their failure is the Our ___ are not like your ___. That’s just off-putting and mean.
