As word comes out who was behind the infamous anti-Hillary Clinton "1984" ad, it's worth noting who was not behind it: Minneapolis adman Bill Hillsman, who created memorable ads for Paul Wellstone and Jesse Ventura, among others. TechPresident caught up with Hillsman, who admitted that he grew up in a Chicago suburb near Park Ridge (where Clinton was raised) and did a similar cut-and-paste style ad for Wellstone (in which Newt Gingrich became Oz and Rudy Boschwitz Ming the Merciless). But he denied involvement with "1984."No, ParkRidge47, the pseudonymous creator of the Obama ad, was revealed by The Huffington Post to be Phillip de Vellis, an employee at Blue State Digital, a company created by former members of Howard Dean's web team. Per that company's policy prohibiting outside political work de Vellis has been terminated for creating the commercial.
In a guest post at Arianna Huffington's site, de Vellis was unapologetic. "I did it. And I'm proud of it," he wrote. "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."
And that he did. De Vellis' version of "1984" has been viewed on YouTube 1,897,492 times (and counting).
While he can't take credit for the hacked Apple commercial, Hillsman did praise the message of the spot:
It is a very shrewd attack piece, though, politically speaking. The subtext points up what I have been saying for a year now-- that Hillary has big problems with her base of liberal women (note that the hero in the 1984 spot is a woman, which was key to its success at the time). And if you are for Obama, it really hits at her weak spot-- coming across as a cold automaton even when she thinks she is being friendly and sincere (Al Gore disease).
[Cross-posted at Minnesota Monitor.]
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