"Hillary 1984" Video Creator Steps Forward

by , 9:10 AM EDT, March 22nd, 2007

Earlier in March, an anonymously made pro-Barack Obama video spoofing the original 1984 Macintosh commercial appeared on YouTube depicting New York Senator Hillary Clinton as "big brother." On Wednesday, the video creator, Philip de Vellis, stepped forward, according to Yahoo! News.

Mr. de Vellis was a strategist with the political digital consulting company Blue State Digital, but resigned on Wednesday after discovering that the Huffington Post planned to reveal his identity. In a blog on the Huffington Post site, he explained why he created the video.

"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," he said. "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."

Although Mr. de Vellis was working for Blue State Digital when he made the Hillary 1984 video, he claims he did it on his own time at home, without the knowledge of his employer. Mr. de Vellis added that he used off the shelf Apple products to create the ad.

Illinois Senator Barack Obama said that his presidential campaign knew nothing of the video before it appeared on YouTube, and didn't know who had created it. He commented on Larry King Live "Frankly, given what it looks like, we don't have the technical capacity to create something like this. It's pretty extraordinary."

Many experts feel that the Hillary 1984 video marked a change in political campaigning. Now that voters have the ability to produce their own ads in support of their favorite candidate - or against politicians they oppose - many will.

Mr. de Vellis commented "This ad was not the first citizen ad, and it will not be the last. The game has changed."