Tech giant Intel stars actors playing Indians
By Pulkit Sharma

Intel is the dominant chip player in the world and controls 80 percent of the $40 billion market.  Intel chips have stood the test of time and rugged conditions and drive most of the personal computers and laptops in the world. But the recession is biting and Intel first quarter profits this year was only $647 million as compared to $1.44 billion in 2008.

How did the different Intel regions perform?  Asia-Pacific (including India) was down a whopping 51 percent. Americas down by 21 percent, Europe by 18 percent and Japan witnessed a reduction in market share by 10 percent.

To claw back its revenues and profits, Intel is doing a number of things.  One element of their plan is to launch an advertising blitz unprecedented in the last 3 years.  Intel advertised heavily during the recent T20 Cricket Tournament in England which was broadcast on India’s Star network

The Intel advertising campaign was developed in USA with the theme of ‘Our rock stars are different from your rock stars’.  During the T20 cricket tournament, Indians were transfixed by this clever advertising campaign which showed Ajay Bhatt, Chief Platform Architect at Intel and co-creator of the USB port, walking down an Intel office as Intel workers gape and rush towards him as if he was a music super star or a Hollywood heart throb.

The Intel advertisement shown in India featured a late 30ish/early 40s Ajay Bhatt strutting to the coffee machine even as fellow Intel workers gawk and rush for autographs.  It is a real clever ad.

Only problem?  The man we think is Ajay Bhatt is not the real Ajay Bhatt.

OregonLive is reporting the real Ajay Bhatt is 52 and too shy to appear in any advertisement

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"Nobody's approached me in the cafeteria asking for my autograph," chuckles Bhatt, 52, who said he has neither the time nor the disposition to be a pitchman.

Intel asked Bhatt's permission to feature him in the ads, and he gave it -- and then didn't give the ads much thought. Periodic updates arrived from the company's marketing department, but he paid them little mind until the finished commercial arrived.

"They must have done a lot of research on me," Bhatt said. "They'd been sending me stuff. I just see something come through my BlackBerry. I put it aside."

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.

Nonetheless, Bhatt said he's thrilled to see his research recognized -- even with another man's face.
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