That ad is being broadcast on TV around here, and it icks me out every time. The white western aid worker as secular saint - bleh. What I don’t understand is why they chose to highlight a service that to the average viewer is probably not going to seem substantially different from videoconferencing. It just doesn’t seem that interesting.

Ways to make this blog even more like your personal blog: zombie references. Try it - it could only be a good thing.

Lame, lame, lame ad. Thanks for the link to it. I agree that CISCO has done some great stuff…providing staff to work with major relief organizations was a major shot in the arm to get those groups taking technology seriously. But ads like this perpetuate the myth of the magnificence of Western aid in a young, white, male package. Not that there are not great, young, white, men working in difficult places but how about making it about the work or the diversity of the field?

Indeed. The echoes of empire that run all the way through this popular stereotype of the aid worker disturb me so. It was Jon Thompson of HumanLink who sent me this originally - his only comment was “When I pack my 46″ flat screen into the field I secure it with two stretchers, four bags of rice and 100 rolls of gauze…”

The best part about this to my is that you can’t run Telepresence over a satellite connection. They could have done a much better add using cisco routers, wireless etc and showing it actually being used…

As the person at Cisco who is in charge of advertising I read these comments with keen interest. We are happy that our new video has generated such a passionate response, Our goal in the story was simple - to show how our TelePresence HD video conference could unite a son with his family on the other side of the world. That is why we didn’t feature “the people that we’re supposed to be helping” as the story is not about them (no doubt they are deserving of a good story, but this was not the story we were trying to tell). On the comments about …”perpetuate the myth of the magnificence of Western aid’ I’m afraid we can do nothing. No matter who we feature or what we show I have learned that advertising is often a magnet for hurt feelings.

Alan - thank you very much for your clarification. As you note, you can’t please all of the people all of the time - but I think our objections speak to something else. As I mentioned, Cisco has done a lot to help developing countries and organisations working in those countries, but most people who see this advert will not know anything about that work, or the issues behind it.

What they will see is a stereotypical image of a (white) aid worker helping the (black) needy, an image which works against the very development work that Cisco is otherwise pursuing. If you wanted to show a family being reunited, then why not show (for example) a Somali refugee in the United States being connected to his family in Kenya? Notwithstanding the horrible stereotype of the aid worker that I initially took exception to, the message that this clip sends to me is that technology is for the rich.

I hope that you don’t take this critique as personal - it’s just that these images have far more impact on domestic audiences than you probably realise.

Paul- Thanks for your comments. I must admit that they have given me a new way to think about how we might do this kind of thing in the future. Seeing this discussion will certainly help me next time.

Well here’s another twist on the whole thing. I was upset because Cisco didn’t have the guts to show the most likely person using this technology, an American Soldier serving in Iraq or Afganistan. I reasoned that they didn’t want to piss off their liberal base, which as it turns out, they did anyway. Keep it up Cisco…

J. Powell - I’m a little confused by your comment. Why would an American soldier be the most likely person to be using this technology, and why would it take guts to show that? Also, I’m not sure what you mean by “liberal base” - perhaps you could clarify?

Hi everybody(Alan),

i have been following this discussion.
I actually have a request for Cisco. We as PAI need assistance with communication in EL Fasher Sudan. Does Cisco help in this part of the world. Using 56 k or less is a real bummer. Even TSF wouldn’t help. A sponsored VSAT by Cisco would do the job, and maybe a little wireless to distribute bandwith to some other organizations.

Please check out our website for our current work.

Frank - getting VSATs into Sudan is notoriously difficult, since the government doesn’t look too favourably on satellite communications. When I was there at the start of 2006, only a handful of NGOs had managed to get VSATs in and running. Cisco tends to work through NetHope to support the NGO community, so you might try contacting them.

Actually we discussed the military angle, but Cisco has a long history of furnishing technology in disaster situations (Katrina and the Tsunami come to mind as two good examples). This is much closer to what we actually do.