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Published on: 8/15/2008
Last Visited: 11/4/2009
The thirty-second ad (constructed as a window on the Intel world) includes a musical score with an electric guitar, a bass beat, and a collection of visuals that herald a new starâ€"an Indian American named Ajay Bhatt, the co-inventor of the USB.
However, the man in the commercial is not Ajay Bhatt but an Indian actor who bears more resemblance to Apu, the animated character from The Simpsons, than the real man.
Perhaps with the proliferation of South Asian faces in popular culture that range from Dr. Sanjay Gupta to Governor Bobby Jindahl to American Idol Anoop Desai to host Padma Lakshmi, the fake Ajay Bhatt should not be the cause of so much concern.
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But on the other hand, this exaggerated behavior creates a comic moment because the visual of the actor playing Ajay Bhatt defies American audience expectations of who represents a rock star.
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The message behind the humor separates Indian Americans from everyday American popular culture icons and instead confines Ajay Bhatt and anyone like him to a single image and bars him from creating an alternative image of what an ethnic hero can look like.
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Ajay Bhatt
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The real Ajay Bhatt
The ad invites us to imagine a different world at Intel and yet the behind the scenes information is that Ajay Bhatt is played by an actor.
As it turns out the “real†Ajay Bhatt is the anti-thesis of the image presented in the commercial.
The real person is distinguished Indian American gentleman who resembles a polished business executive.
Stereotypes make for great comic fodder but when the same joke is told over and over again you are constantly creating barriers of who can be called an American hero and blocking the idea of an ethnic hero.
For example, when Conan O’Brien found out Ajay Bhatt was played by an actor he decided to invite the real Ajay Bhatt to his late night show (10-9-09).
The show is edited to show how Conan wants to depict Ajay Bhatt as a man who speaks in techno-babble, is merciless to his competitors, and wants to impress young women with his accomplishments.
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His attempts to characterize the real Ajay Bhatt in stereotypical terms comes off as awkward and reveals more of a crisis in Conan’s definition of American masculinity.
Just by appearing on the show, the real Ajay Bhatt redefines how we think about Indian Americans and local heroes because he challenges conceptions of American masculinity in a way that the actor who is a caricature cannot because he is a two-dimensional construct.
In this way Ajay Bhatt (unconsciously) represents a true “rock star†because he defies convention.
While the advertisement promotes a different world where the professionals are Indian Americans or Asian Americans who are boxed in by the continual replaying of stereotypical definitions, the Campaign of the Sponsors of Tomorrow, according to the real Ajay Bhatt, is supposed to promote the people behind the products.
Perhaps in telling the story of the actor Ajay Bhatt and the real Ajay Bhatt, he has become a household name in America and in fact may be breaking down the walls between the distinct Intel worlds.5
Image Credits:
1. Intel "Rock stars" print advertisement
2. A striking resemblance: Intel's "fake" Ajay Bhatt...
3. ...and The Simpsons' Apu
4. The real Ajay Bhatt
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The same advertisement was shown in India in Hindi with no changes but in the Mandarin version, actor Ajay Bhatt was replaced with a Chinese actor (using the same gestures) and the people around him at work was a majority East Asian cast.
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