Arianna Huffington found who modified the famous Apple 1984 ad into an Obama against Hillary piece that we showed a few days ago and posted his comment on her blog. Here’s her comment on how she found him.
If this kind of up-from-the-people thing continues as de Vellis indicates may happen, this is going to be one hell of an interesting election that you can bet the politicians and their big money backers aren’t ready for.
Phil de Vellis, aka ParkRidge47: I Made the “Vote Different” Ad
Hi. I’m Phil. I did it. And I’m proud of it.
I made the “Vote Different” ad because I wanted to express my feelings about the Democratic primary, and because I wanted to show that an individual citizen can affect the process. There are thousands of other people who could have made this ad, and I guarantee that more ads like it–by people of all political persuasions–will follow.
This shows that the future of American politics rests in the hands of ordinary citizens.
The campaigns had no idea who made it–not the Obama campaign, not the Clinton campaign, nor any other campaign. I made the ad on a Sunday afternoon in my apartment using my personal equipment (a Mac and some software), uploaded it to YouTube, and sent links around to blogs.
The specific point of the ad was that Obama represents a new kind of politics, and that Senator Clinton’s “conversation” is disingenuous. And the underlying point was that the old political machine no longer holds all the power.
Let me be clear: I am a proud Democrat, and I always have been. I support Senator Obama. I hope he wins the primary. (I recognize that this ad is not his style of politics.) I also believe that Senator Clinton is a great public servant, and if she should win the nomination, I would support her and wish her all the best.
I’ve resigned from my employer, Blue State Digital, an internet company that provides technology to several presidential campaigns, including Richardson’s, Vilsack’s, and — full disclosure — Obama’s. The company had no idea that I’d created the ad, and neither did any of our clients. But I’ve decided to resign anyway so as not to harm them, even by implication.
This ad was not the first citizen ad, and it will not be the last. The game has changed.
Broadcast media made a much bigger thing out of this that it was.
First, they run out of ideas on TV shows – so, they make “reality” TV.
Now, they can’t make good ads or editorials, so they use the web.
This guy’s gonna make a ton of bread from all the hype.
… and the spoof wasn’t even very clever.
If some schmuck with a PC/MAC can make such an impactful ad, imagine what the the money soaked GOP can do with their advertising agency , “Swift Boat Advertisers, LLC” .
Worse than ‘not being clever’, it served no purpose other than as an attention grabber for the person who cobbed together the “commercial”.
What the video actually exhibits is a pathetic misunderstanding of message communication and an arrogant disregard for the positioning needs of the supposedly supported candidate.
With friends like that, Barack Obama doesn’t need enemies. Frankly, I would not have been surprised to learn Rove, et al masterminded the piece.
I’m waiting to see the apologies to the RNC and specifically Carl Rove for those on this blog that were absolutely certain that it was they/him that did it.
I’m not holding my breath.
I am republican and I thought the ad was brilliant and it certainly rocked the Hillary camp look at the effort in finding the man who made it.
He better watch out for the Clinton goon squad now (he will probably never work again after they get through black balling him)
If someone can do this to Hilary just think what a bunch of Mac wielding progressives will do to the Republicans this time around. Hell, speaking as an ex-republican, I think I might do spot for McCain. To show my “support”. For those that can’t read between the lines, that was sarcasm. I used to like McCain until he became a Bush supporting right wing nut case.
Also, fix the freaking submit button cowboy. I am getting frik’n tired of it.
#4 – Yah, It ain’t gonna happen. Great Ad tho.
I wonder if Apple will sue him for misappropriation of their ad. On the other hand, Apple’s name is mentioned constantly in relation to it, so they should at least give him a new Mac for all the free publicity they’ve gotten.
I’m sure John McCain and the rest of the campaign finance reform crazies will add this to their list of what to regulate next This sort of thing is already banned to a certain extent by the last law.
4 – I just thought it was agitprop, and not that clever, but I’ll tell you what. I’ll apologize to the RNC for occasionally telling the truth about them as soon as they apologize to the U.S. public for the whole Swift Boat slander against Kerry, or for helping to stuff the Supreme Court with Republican activists who don’t seem to give a damn about Constitutional law. That seems fair and of course I don’t really have to worry that it’ll ever happen.
Brilliant! Not only do people not take back their slanderous statements directed at how Rove et al were responsible for this, the SCHMUCK up top (#2) directs it yet again to something relating to how evil the republicans are and what they will do now! Brilliant!
Lets recap for the slow people. A democrat did this about a democrat and democrats ran their heads about how evil republicans probably did it, and then when they are shown to be wrong, they throw more excrement at the republicans. Magnificent! Where can I sign up to be a democrat?
I hope we see a LOT more of these kinds things.
Only thing wrong with it was the Obama reference at the end. It should simply have been a piece to expose the true Hillarius. Just like the SwiftBoaters exposed the true Kerry.
I hope to see a new one of these pop up every other day.
#4. I pegged it as right-wing propaganda, but did not specifically slander the RNC or Rove. But here’s my mea culpa, anyway –
“Oh, mighty neo-cons! How sorry I am that I thought you were clever enough to come up with this viral video! I was foolish to believe that you were capable of anything even mildly amusing. How could I overlook that you are only capable of blunt-force Swift-Boat attacks on a veteran’s patriotism and “smoking-gun mushroom cloud” scaremongering! A thousand apologies to you and your corporate masters!”
*adds #13 to his previous statement on the density of modern democrats*
I really wish you guys would get a clue and form a legitimate party because personally I dont like the republicans very much either. As it stands now most people with any serious logic to them can see the current democratic party is a sham with no real ideas of their own beyond ‘waaaaa! we dont like the republicans! waaaa!’ Well guess what, until you guys start presenting a good alternative things will stay as shitty as they are.
“Adds #14. to his firm belief that conservatives have no sense of humor, PJ O’Rourke excepted”
As an attack ad, it’s quite humorous to see the Democrats laying blame on the Republicans for posting it, but finding out that a Democrat is responsible makes it OK somehow.
Buy him a beer. It was cool.