Beth Granter

Freelance digital consultant for charities


Intel love animal cruelty


What?  OK so not really.  But I just got very disturbed by their advert for how secure their laptops are.  The idea I imagine is supposed to show a guard-dog patrolling around the laptops.  But the effect is like when you see those poor zoo animals who have been driven insane by being cooped up in a small cage – frantically pacing up and down, looking for a way out or some kind of stimulation.

Intel Ad

Their ad was quite upsetting for me to watch, as it loops constantly and the poor dog just doesn’t stop pacing!  Placement on a page where I’m trying to read an article about the Google phone made me not even get to the end of the article because it was so disturbing seeing this ad.  Yeah of course I know it’s not real and the dog probably only did that walk once or twice, but nevertheless it is the visual effect of it that affected me.


10 responses to “Intel love animal cruelty”

  1. Hi everyone, including Mark and D Orkus. I thought it strange that I received two comments in the same day on an old blog post, and since the one from D Orkus was pretty rude, I checked the IP address. Turns out Mark and D Orkus share an IP address, which is associated to a huge ad agency in London. I won’t name them at this point as it doesn’t seem worth upsetting anybody over, but this is a prime example of how letting your employees comment on blog posts from work can be very dangerous to the reputation of the company, if they’re speaking with the kind of sarcastic tone that D Orkus has done. This would look particularly bad if they expect to run social media / online PR projects for clients. Mark’s comment is much more appropriate and a suitable response however.

  2. Either which way you look at this ad – it’s still really lame.

    I headed over to Mark’s site to see both ad’s in action, and well… it just looks like a stuck record – just skipping over and over and over.

    ..surely a better execution of this concept is in order?

  3. Hi Beth,

    That’s a pretty sensational page title. I was part of the team that made those ads and I can assure you the dog had a really enjoyable day. She came with her trainers, an entourage of dog friends to keep her company, with the shoot co-ordinated by a specialist in filming animals. We oganised all the movements to be in line with her natural behavior.

    It’s unfortunate that the combination of bars and pacing translated into a negative experience for you. That was unforseen, especially as you read the intention of the ad correctly: the protective dog guards the infected computer that has been contained.

    The second ad in that campaign has a more playful treatment:
    http://www.marklight.co.uk/int_2.htm#a2

  4. Beth Granter loves cruelty to crabs.

    After reading your lame comments about the ad I checked out your flickr photos where I came across pictures of you torturing a crab. I mean, i know you obviously didn’t really torture the crab but the picture made you look as if you were and it made really upset.

    boo hoo

  5. Hmm I’m not sure who you’re agreeing with Cynthia – I don’t actually think the dog was scared or looking for a way out. Like I said, it probably only did that walk once or twice. I didn’t mean that Intel really were being cruel – just that the looping of the video had the effect of making it look that way.

  6. yeah! i agree with the statement above. The poor dog was probably really scared and was just looking for a way out.

  7. Wow. i never looked at it from that angle before. I agree with you, that could be seen by many as upsetting. well done you for highlighting!

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