Intel’s Rock stars’ Campaign and the case of fake act!

If Vodafone’s Zoozoo ads suprised you for their decision to use real people instead of animated characters, Intel recently launched ad comes as more surprise.

Intel, in order to gain market share/improve brand perception started a worldwide campaign that had a tagline“Our rock stars are different from your rock stars.”

The irony? Well, Ajay Bhatt (Chief Platform Architect at Intel, and co-creator of the USB port) featured in the ad is actually a fake Ajay Bhatt (i.e. an actor) who performs the act!

Intel’s ads, dubbed “Sponsors of Tomorrow,” is the biggest marketing campaign in three years and revolves around positioning Intel as a research firm.

But why a fake Ajay Bhatt?

“Intel said it hopes eventually to have its employees play themselves in its ads, but for the first round wanted actors with the comic timing, experience — and time — to play the part.

In the ad, mustachioed, elegantly coifed actor Sunil Narkar plays Bhatt, who is cleanshaven and has a spare hairstyle. And the commercial’s futuristic, glassy workplace looks nothing like Intel’s fabric cubicle farms in Washington County.” – source, via

AMD – Are you going to use this to your benefit?