Intel has issued a statement regarding pulling their ads from Gamasutra to clarify a few simple things. Like, pulling ads does not mean they're "bowing down to a movement that’s trying to keep women out of technology" as bloggers are painting it as.
We take feedback from customers seriously.
For the time being, Intel has decided not to continue with our current ad campaign on the gaming site Gamasutra.
However, we recognize that our action inadvertently created a perception that we are somehow taking sides in an increasingly bitter debate in the gaming community. That was not our intent, and that is not the case. When it comes to our support of equality and women, we want to be very clear: Intel believes men and women should be treated the same. And, diversity is an integral part of our corporate strategy and vision with commitments to improve the diversity of our workforce. And while we respect the right of individuals to have their personal beliefs and values, Intel does not support any organization or movement that discriminates against women. We apologize and we are deeply sorry if we offended anyone.
Like Intel, I believe men and women should be treated the same as well. Intel aren't keeping women out of tech either, since the President of Intel Corporation is Renée J. James, and she's also part of the company's Executive Office, so they're walking the walk too. I still believe that insulting consumers shrinks the market, and when I reported that Intel pulled ads from Gamasutra it received 70+ comments so by now, dear adgrunt, you've been warned. If you're working on a gamer-client and haven't heard about this yet, you suck at your job.
That so many blogs and semi-journalists are currently quite busy painting Intel's advertising decision as an intentional alignment with a "misogynistic movement" demonstrates quite well how, as I've said before, feeding junk into the megaphone creates a feedback loop that amplifies as we go round and round. Right now, hundreds of bloggers and semi-journalists are publishing posts with warped headlines lie "Intel apologises for pulling ads from Gamasutra", an apology that doesn't exist in Intel's statement above.
As demonstrated earlier when Gavin McInnes was fired, the new game online is to rally around boycotts. Unlike the one million moms campaign that never seem to have any effect, or the weird uptick of Chick-fil-A sales when they were universally hated in the press, this current outrage issue seems to be engaging plenty of people on both sides of the current divide. I've told you adgrunts working on Activision, Playstation, EA and everyone else before that you need to pay attention, hit the war room or whatever you call your conference/ping-pong table and start working on a strategy. How can you step away from this mess and attempt disassociate from it, if blogs then say you're aligned with sexism for doing so? Get that guy in media to tell you exactly where your online ads are showing right now. You need to have a plan.
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Everyone involved with these sites needs to quietly and politely step away from this before they get dragged down with them.
Is this not borderline blackmail to enforce advertisement or engage in a slur campaign?
Were the people boycotting slandering the company too?
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PermalinkGamergate's marching orders, for lack of a more accurate description, specifically reminded would-be boycotters to be polite and honest in emails to advertisers. Boycotters were also encouraged to write their own missives, rather than adapting a form letter, so there is always the chance that someone might have forgotten to rein in their temper and spilled a bit of it across their mails, but the "official" (as much as that word can be applied to a decentralized consumer revolt, anyway) instructions were to simply inform companies that their names were being associated with sites and writers that were actively alienating significant portions of the userbase.
Hope this information helps.
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Permalink"Everyone involved with these sites"
I'd like a list of "these sites". It sure looks like the press will tar and feather you if you pull your ads from specific sites while they're watching, which is very strange situation. Advertisers have pulled their sponsorship from Rush Limbaugh's radio show, Subway pulled ads from MTV after Parents Television Council (PTC) targeted it. It's not a new phenomena, all I know is you don't want to be the first of last one to pull out as it gets your brand unwanted attention. The smartest move is not to play, just remove ads and say nothing to anyone that you did. If the sites make a stink about it, they're the ones with the tar and feathers who are shaming their own (former) sponsors.
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PermalinkKotaku
Gamasutra
Polygon
Rock Paper Shotgun
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PermalinkA full list of sites, companies and "journalists" involved can be seen here: https://gitlab.com/gamergate/gamergate/blob/master/Boycott%20list.md
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PermalinkNo that is the result of the stance they took, it is the result of the numerous smear attacks.
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PermalinkSo, do I understand this correctly?
Gamasutra smeared a group of consumers
Intel pulled advertising because of this smear
Gamasutra smeared Intel with the same smear? Or jsut their supporters?
Were gamasutra staff involved? The authors of the articles involved?
It is deeply unsettling if the authors or staff involved did anything to cause the smear on Intel
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PermalinkSeveral sites were involved in the articles that caused this to flare up, but for the purposes of the Intel pullout, yes, one of Gamasutra's articles prompted the Gamergate boycott. Intel responded to the boycott earlier this week by pulling their ads. I don't believe Gamasutra, in any official capacity, pointed at Intel and called it misogynistic, but the author of the article talked about it on Twitter, and she has a number of both followers and connections throughout games journalism. Passions over the Gamergate controversy have been heated on both sides, and the anti-Gamergate contingent has a number of vocal users who are very quick to resort to ad hominem attacks, as the author of this article can attest.
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PermalinkHey Rob check out the some of the anti-GG trying to smear Intel : http://i.imgur.com/DmsmzSR.jpg
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PermalinkWith Intel's pullout, I hope to god NVIDIA is looking at doing the same before they get caught up in this mess. These media outlets were dumb enough to throw jet fuel on a fire.
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Permalink"hundreds of bloggers and semi-journalists" at least someone gets it. This guys are nothing more than bloggers and semi/pseudo/self proclaimed journalists. If they would be real journalists, GamerGate wouldn't even be needed to begin with. They would be mature about it and try to solve things peacefully without shaming and name calling anyone.
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PermalinkIf you're talking strategy, the smart thing is to pull ads off offending sites BEFORE the boycott gets to you in the first place.
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PermalinkNo one has a problem with it when consumers encourage advertisers to pull out of Rush Limbaugh's show. Or when they encourage advertisers to stop supporting the NFL. Or the numerous other times consumers have encouraged advertisers to withdraw support. For some reason all these gaming journalists seem to think this is some sort of new thing happening. Makes you wonder where they went to journalism school.
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PermalinkMost of them didn't is a fairly safe bet.
If they would have gone to some journalistic education they would have maybe respected keeping distance on subjects they report on and a lot if not all of this situation would never have happened. There are many examples of just plain old PR catastrophes in this mess. But this is not the place to vent that.
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