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Obama supporter owns up to anti-Hillary video
The political whodunit of the presidential campaign season was solved Wednesday after a strategist with an Internet consulting firm -- which has ties to candidate Barack Obama -- stepped forward as creator of the controversial "1984"-style Internet ad that depicted Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton as a "Big Brother" figure. Philip de Vellis, a strategist with Blue State Digital, the firm that designed Obama's Web site, acknowledged that he is "ParkRidge47,'' creator of the ad. De Vellis resigned from the firm after hearing he was about to be reported as the creator by the Huffington Post blog. Blue State Digital was responsible for the cutting-edge design of Obama's Web site. The Associated Press reported that one of the firm's founding members, Joe Rospars, took a leave from the company to work with the Obama campaign. In a Huffington Post blog Wednesday titled "Phil de Vellis, aka ParkRidge 47,'' the creator calls himself "a proud Democrat who supports Sen. Obama'' but says he would support Clinton, the Democratic front-runner, if she were the nominee. He insisted he did the work "on a Sunday afternoon in my apartment using my personal equipment" and then uploaded it to YouTube.com and sent links around to other blogs. "This ad was not the first citizen ad, and it will not be the last,'' he wrote. "The game has changed.'' Peter Leyden, who heads the New Politics Institute, a San Francisco think tank that deals with Internet and political issues, said Blue State Digital is a "very credible Web design and Web development firm that definitely knows what they're doing and are moving into broader media. They're a pretty young, Gen X kind of crew.'' The firm's clients include Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass, and the Democratic National Committee. "They do a lot of solid, respectable stuff for a lot of clients and are definitely aligned more on the Democratic progressive side,'' Leyden said. He said "it makes sense" to hear that the campaign ad creator is part of such a professional design firm. "But it bears out that (de Vellis) did not use high-end animation. (He used) a skill that is widespread in the Internet that many people in their 20s and 30s can do and on software that is accessible.'' "It's disappointing to hear that he's associated with a firm that is associated with Barack,'' he said. But "it shows that someone who has a decent amount of talent and basic tools can do meaningful political video. If he did it on the side in his day job, then he's one of hundreds of thousands who could do the same.'' Pundits, political insiders, bloggers and campaign consultants alike were buzzing this week over the mystery person who created what was described as perhaps the most groundbreaking attack ad of the young 21st century. Titled "Hillary 1984," the ad was a video remix or "mashup" of the classic Apple ad that introduced the Macintosh computer 23 years ago. The spot shows a young, blond athlete carrying a sledgehammer running through a stadium toward the giant screen where a "Big Brother" figure drones away to the masses. The athlete -- armed with an Ipod, an image lifted from a later version of the ad, and wearing a "Barack Obama" tee shirt, smashes the screen defiantly with her hammer. The image on screen: Hillary Clinton. The Obama campaign released a statement Wednesday about the news. "The Obama campaign or its employees had no knowledge and had nothing to do with the creation of the ad. We were notified this evening by a vendor of ours, Blue State Digital, that an employee of the company had been involved in the making of this ad. Blue State Digital has separated ties with this individual and we have been assured he did no work on our campaign's account." The Clinton campaign had no comment. Posted by: ryuge 2007-03-22 |
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