from YouTube.com
Finally, the end to the thrilling mystery as the identity of the mysterious "Hillary 1984" YouTube attack ad videographer is revealed: He is Philip de Vellis, former Internet communications director for the Sherrod Brown campaign, and recent former employee of Blue State Digital, founded by members of Howard Dean's Internet Team. De Vellis, who was sussed out by our own Huffington Post, admitted to being responsible for the ad in a blog post yesterday, saying that he had "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."
A wrinkle: De Villis says that he made the anti-Hillary pro-Obama ad on his own, in his own apartment with his own equipment, but either way it doesn't look great for his employer, which just happens to be the provider for the official Barack Obama social networking site, and one of whose founding partners, Joe Rospars, is currently on leave from the company to serve as New Media Director for the presidential campaign of — guess who? — Barack Obama. Yikes. Even though Blue State Digital was quick to issue a statement distancing itself from de Vellis and announcing his termination (though he said he resigned), still, it doesn't look great.
Which is why the comments on the posts of de Vellis and chief sleuth Arianna Huffington are pretty mixed: Though there are plenty of "You go, Phil de Vellis!" messages there are also a number criticizing him not only for hating on Hillary Clinton but for making the Obama campaign look bad and for levying his attack at a Democrat instead of a Republican ("Talent shouldn't have been wasted pitting one Democrat against another").
Interestingly, though everyone agrees that the ad is a game-changer in the world of campaigning and political ads, no one is claiming that it has changed how people vote: As ETP mentioned earlier, Hillary herself looks pretty good in the vid (seriously, the icy tinge to the vid gives her a deliciously iron-willed Miranda Priestly vibe) and her words are hardly foreboding; the power in the commercial is in the artistry (it's extremely well-done), and the zing of the hit. But you could put any politician in there and get a similar result — even Barack Obama. (Though our pick would be Mitt Romney, who is already part automaton).*
So what, ultimately, is the effect? Well, de Vellis is out of a job but we're not worried about him — someone smart will probably snap him up immediately, because he obviously knows what he's doing. Hillary's campaign has declined to comment, and she cheerily joked about the video today, so they get points for keeping their cool (as opposed to after the Geffen kerfuffle). Obama — well, as we said, it doesn't look great (one commenter suggested a neat inversion: "OMG! Your company is a political operative for the Obama campaign. So stop pretending you're just a little guy with a lap top! You're the machine. Big Brother masquerading as a revolutionary. It's embarrassing and scary how Orwellian you are"). Political consultants will feel it, now that they've been put on the spot by one guy's homemade afternoon's work (as well they should be). And the waves will reverberate: People will still turn to YouTube for political expression, and every so often, one of them will go viral. Where we will really see the change, then, is in the process: More participants in the system, more ways to get the word out, but more specifically, more renegade operatives taking a stab at an attack ad — which means more reasons for candidates to be nervous, indeed.
I Made The "Vote Different" Ad [Phil de Vellis, HuffPo]
Who Created "Hillary 1984"? Mystery Solved! [Arianna Huffington, HuffPo]
Decision 2008: YouTube Will Not Be Ignored [ETP]
*Actually, that would be a fantastic online generator — please, geeks of the world, figure out how to let us upload our own videos to that template, much fun could be had. It would be especially fun to use footage of the Google Guys. Talk about verisimilitude!
