The creator of the controversial “Vote Different” ad - a mashup of Apple’s famous 1984 Super Bowl ad and Hillary Clinton’s campaign video -  has stepped forward and revealed himself to be a designer with the web design company that created Barack Obama’s web site.

The ad (viewable at the end of this post) caused an uproar when it was uploaded to YouTube. Both Obama and Clinton distanced themselves from the video.

Writing on the Hunfington Post, where he was about to be outed, web designer Philip de Vellis, said that he created the ad one Sunday afternoon in his apartment with his Mac and that neither his employer, nor Obama or Clinton, knew that he created the video.

Phil, as he likes to be called, said that he wanted to express his feelings about the Democratic primary and wanted to show than an individual 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,” he wrote.

In his Vote Different ad, Phil inserted video of Clinton speaking in the place of “Big Brother” in Apple’s 1984 ad. Phil says that he wanted to show that Obama represents a new kind of politics.

“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.”

Interestingly, Phil makes it clear that he’s always been a proud Democrat.

“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.”

Phil ends his post with an ominous warning for politicians everywhere.

“This ad was not the first citizen ad, and it will not be the last. The game has changed.”

Given that the ad has, at the time of writing, been viewed 2.6 million times and has generated 5900 comments, and has been written about in newspapers around the world, and has been acknowledge and discussed by the candidates themselves, I think Phil has a point.

The game has certainly changed.

Make an idea interesting or compelling, or off-beat, and you too can have your 15 minutes of being world famous, and who knows, maybe in some small or large way affect the outcome of a Democratic primary, or perhaps in the months to come, the outcome of the 2008 US presidential election.

Here’s THAT video:

Related:

Entry was posted on Sunday, March 25th, 2007 at 12:26 pm under Internet, YouTube.

Read more entries by John Pospisil.
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