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| Home Front: Politix |
| Obama supporter owns up to anti-Hillary video |
| 2007-03-22 |
| 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 |
| #6 Ok, this is the last one. MTV.com Choose or Lose Mar 2004: But just as some Dean supporters might be loathe to vote for Kerry because they view him as a typical insider politician, there are also those who might depart from the political process altogether. Many of the young people who signed on for the Dean campaign were political virgins, having never worked on a campaign before or, in many cases, even voted in an election. But for those, like Philip de Vellis, one of the volunteer coordinators on Dean's national campaign, there's hope for the newbies yet. "Once you get involved in something like this, it's kind of addictive, so a good number of people get involved and stay involved. And it's kind of boring once you go back to your regular thing. The closer you were to the action, the more you miss it." |
| Posted by: Steve 2007-03-22 13:26 |
| #5 OK, last one. He's got post-production experience. Listed in credits for a Watchfilms movie called "Lipstick" (A Planned Parenthood of Orange County written film", he's listed as "Titles by Phil De Vellis". |
| Posted by: Steve 2007-03-22 13:15 |
| #4 Google is a wonderful thing. From ZoomInfo People directory: De Vellis, Philip - Dean for America A Deaniac, now there's a surprise Philip de Vellis: Coordinator, Southwest Voter Express. When you have to get voters there overnight! |
| Posted by: Steve 2007-03-22 13:01 |
| #3 Philip appears to have a history of political web dirty tricks. From The Hotline Jan 2006: As Russo and Buckeye Senate's Russell "Pounder" Hughlock -- a natural Hackett supporter and Brown skeptic -- publicized the incident, comments from anonymous users with names like Thisblogishorseshit and JewsforJesus started making antagonistic comments. Both suspected Brown's new Internet spokesperson and blogger Philip de Vellis. (Brown oversees the pro-Dem blog Grow Ohio.) De Vellis was a recent hire, and had been dispatched to put Brown's side of the story on the blogs. They couldn't prove de Vellis had done so. Their evidence was circumstantial at best -- with one big exception. Hughlock compared the IP address on the comments to the IP address from e-mails he'd previously received from de Vellis -- and found an exact match. We contacted the Brown campaign ourselves about it, and while they were reticent to discuss accusations made by bloggers aligned with their opponent, they did take partial responsibility for the postings. De Vellis denied being the author, and pointed out the IP address listed on the comments serve the entire staff of about 30, but the campaign has acknowledged that the comments did indeed originate from their office. De Vellis said he was certain no one on Brown's Internet team had posted any of the messages, but said: "We haven't done an in-depth investigation." Rather, the Brown campaign quietly circulated a policy memo: Interns and staffers may no longer contribute to any blog save for Grow Ohio. This is a direction other campaigns will follow, lest they have to learn the same lesson. |
| Posted by: Steve 2007-03-22 12:51 |
| #2 Brilliant, actually. He created a truly viral video, which is the holy grail of corporate advertising. They are more than willing to spend millions even on the *hope* of getting such an ad. Which means that there is now a bidding war for this guys services. Nothing succeeds like success. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2007-03-22 11:32 |
| #1 Taking credit for it? Not a smart move, Phil... |
| Posted by: The Ghost of Vince Foster 2007-03-22 09:20 |