Looking back at vintage advertising can be a sociological horrorshow. It could never be printed now. But it also seems inevitable that some of today’s tech ads will eventually seem utterly backwards, too. The question is, which ones?
I’m not talking about obvious screwups like Microsoft whitewashing their Polish advertising campaign (which they apologized for), or Intel’s obviously unfortunate—but probably accidental—Core 2 Duo campaign. I’m talking about ads that never got pulled, never prompted an apology, and that, to most people, probably seem harmless. Who, dear readers, will be the 1949 GE of 2060? And for what? Racism? Sexism? Some as-of-yet-unnoticed *ism? Am I oversimplifying what constitutes progress? Difficult questions!
https://gizmodo.com/microsoft-needs-to-hire-better-less-racist-graphic-des-5345418
More to the point, will my kids watch these PSP ads in history class, come home, and ask me why I was such a terrible human, back in 2009?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkEMPyghuwY
Yep, probably. Post your best guesses in the comments, about, you know, the future. [CopyRanter]
