Intel's Super Bowl ads to focus on geeks 'n' gaming

Intel will air a new commercial this Super Bowl weekend aimed at geeks and gamers

Intel will air two new commercials this Super Bowl weekend aimed at "geeks" and gamers. The new advertisements are focused on the company's latest 32nm Westmere processing chips, which are tailor made for intensive computations, such as 3D gaming.

The chip maker is paying in the range of US$5 million to show the two ads, one of which will be repeated during the course of the game, along with title sponsorship of the post-game show, according to David Dickstein, an Intel spokesman.

One of the commercials features two boys playing video games in the 1970s. The commercial follows them as they grow into their 20s, 30s and 40s and end up working at Intel, where they're working on Core processors. However, in describing the ads, Intel spokesman David Dickstein may have unwittingly equated gaming with being a geek.

"I think over the last 10 years at least, it's been cool to be a geek," he stated. "The geek humor is definitely working and we're happy with the results. We like the geek humor." (Since when did being a gamer automatically make you a geek?)

Dickstein added that Intel hasn't had its own commercial during the Super Bowl for 12 years, but this year seemed to be the right one to get back into it.

"The Super Bowl has 95 million viewers and that's a great start for these new commercials," he said. "You just can't beat that communication channel."