Boeing has placed a large (14"x10") advert in today's Sunday Times. By far the most conspicuous aspect of the advert is a picture of a young black woman in office wear facing to camera with her arms folded. Much less distinct in a light font under a heading 'Boeing and the pride of Sheffield' is the following text:

"For centuries, Sheffield has been synonymous with advances in metal development. That proud tradition continues as Boeing, the University of Sheffield and the Advanced Maunfacturing Research Centre push the boundaries of composites and new materials vital to the next generation of aerospace and defence systems. When you consider what this partnership is made of, there is a reason to be proud".

An older white man would arguably have been a more typical representation of the "proud tradition" of "centuries". Or if the young woman had been pictured wearing a lab coat and doing something in relation to exploring the boundaries of composites etc that might have made a little more sense.

14x10 adverts in the Sunday Times probably don't come cheap and the point I really want to make is that this seemed to be a missed opportunity to promote Sheffield the place rather than people, whatever their gender or ethnicity. There could have been one or two pics of new developments in the city, the university or perhaps cutlery and silverware from the long tradition. Instead Boeing seem to have gone for a political correctness trip.

Why do Boeing even need to advertise? It's not like you're going to look at the paper and think "Oh, I must get that 747-400 while I'm out shopping".

Why do Boeing even need to advertise? It's not like you're going to look at the paper and think "Oh, I must get that 747-400 while I'm out shopping".

No.. but you know which airline companies use boeing for their planes...
all the news about the Deals with Airbus as well, you know who is using them...

If boeing launched a plane which was super dooper in every way.. and you wanted to fly on that, you would go with a carrier who used them!!!... thus they would order more planes from Boeing...

I didn't see the advert, but perhaps the woman wasn't representing the development stage, but representing Boeing?

And the problem is?

Sheffield may be associated with craftsmanship, but the sort of material's science that Boeing are linking to in Sheffield is as likely to be exemplified by a young woman as an older man.

Sheffield got a name check against one of the largest high tech companies in the world - for free.

Good on Boeing, good on the Uni! (Now the latter is NOT a phrase I often utter!!)

Why do Boeing even need to advertise? It's not like you're going to look at the paper and think "Oh, I must get that 747-400 while I'm out shopping".

It's market placement and brand awareness rather than advertising.

The Airbus is currently getting all the publicity - Boeing need to maintain 'presence' in the minds of people until they get their product ready to roll.

Corporate image has become far more important to big multinational companies than it used to be, even if it largely based on PR puffery and posturing. Whereas a few years ago, the Ford motor company (if I remember rightly) airbrushed some black workers from a shop floor photograph, the trend these days is to give pride of place to black, brown or yellow people in corporate photos. Similarly, corporate mission statements emphasise the commitment to 'diversity'. How times change.

If ethnicity isn't a factor, why mention it at all?

I think we can be fairly certain that the original poster wouldn't have mentioned this advert if the young women had been white. I would suggest that she doesn't consider a career in advertising if she thinks that it would be a good idea to use middle aged white men in adverts in place of young women.

And in less than a dozen posts it turns into a race argument. Well done all.

It's quite clear that the issue angle20 raised is that the advert used the wrong person, it should have been someone older and not in a business suit. The person could have been any colour or race, just someone with experience in the steel industry.

And in less than a dozen posts it turns into a race argument. Well done all.
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It turned into a race argument as soon as she posted the thread. She is well known for her extremist views on the forum and wouldn't have mentioned the advert if it didn't involve someone who was black.

For those that havn't seen the ad, they're all available in PDF through the Boeing Frontiers newsletter.

They are part of a campaign that started at the end of 2005 to build awareness of Boeing and the fact they have many important UK partners.

boeing.com/news/frontiers/archive/2005/december/photos/dec_05_ad03.pdf
1, Derby - 'Boeing, Rolls Royce and the Engine of Change' (Rolls Royce Aero Engines)

boeing.com/news/frontiers/archive/2006/february/photos/feb_06_ad03.pdf
2, Wolverhampton - 'Boeing and the Champions of Wolverhampton' (Smiths Aerospace)

boeing.com/news/frontiers/archive/2006/march/photos/march_06_ad05.pdf
3, Sheffield - 'Boeing and the Pride of Sheffield' (Sheffield University Advanced Manufacturing Research Center)

Thanks to bjones for posting the other links.

A member of the public will not necessarily see all of a series of adverts so it is desirable for each one to be self explanatory on a stand-alone basis. The man featured in the Wolverhampton advert does look the part in terms of wearing a white coat and carrying a piece of aeronautical equipment.

Had the Sheffield advert featured a white young woman, as KenH suggests, I might have suspected there was some sort of PC agenda behind it; the fact that it was a black young woman perhaps reinforced this impression. I almost passed over the advert without seeing the mention of Sheffield. I only then read it because of my local interest in the city. I suspect a great many other readers, including perhaps some potential investors, skipped right over it.

The advert probably cost in the order of £40-50,000. It could have been used as an opportunity to give Sheffield a plug as a location for up-and-coming high-tech businesses. Instead I have the impression that the real purpose was for Boeing to gain one or two brownie points on "promoting diversity".

PS I should perhaps, to avoid any misunderstanding, emulate KenH in having a more macho user name. :)