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Anti-Clinton Ad Maker Unmasked
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ShareMarch 21, 2007 8:01 PM
ABC News' Jake Tapper Reports: The creator of the anti-Clinton/pro-Obama 'Big Sister' 1984 Apple ad that took the Internet video-sharing site YouTube by storm has been unmasked: it was, in fact, one of Obama's contracted technicians who made the video.
It turns out the creator of the controversial anti-Clinton film is Philip de Vellis, who until today worked at Blue State Digital, a company created by members of Howard Dean's Internet Team that now handles Obama's Internet page.
In response to questions about the anti-Hillary Clinton YouTube video recently posted, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., told Larry King this week that "In some ways, it's the democratization of the campaign process. But it's not something that we had anything to do with or were aware of, and that frankly, given what it looks like, we don't have the technical capacity to create something like this."
This evening the Obama campaign issued a statement, saying, "The Obama campaign and 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."
It also provided a statement from Thomas Gensemer, managing director of Blue State Digital:
"This afternoon, an employee at our firm, Phillip de Vellis, received a call from Arianna Huffington of The Huffington Post regarding the 1984 video currently circulating online ," Gensemer said. "Initially, de Vellis refused to respond to her requests. He has since acknowledged to Blue State Digital that he was the creator of the video.
"Pursuant to company policy regarding outside political work or commentary on behalf of our clients or otherwise, Mr. de Vellis has been terminated from Blue State Digital effective immediately.
"Blue State Digital is under contract with the Obama Campaign for technology pursuits including software development and hosting. Additionally, one of our founding partners is on leave from the company to work directly for the campaign at headquarters.
"However, Blue State Digital is not currently engaged in any relationship with the Obama Campaign for creative or non-technical services.
"Mr. de Vellis created this video on his own time. It was done without the knowledge of management, and was in no way tied to his work at the firm or our formal engagement [on technology pursuits] with the Obama campaign.
"I have spoken with David Plouffe, Sen. Obama' s campaign manager, to inform him of this action and am appreciative of his understanding and ongoing support of our work.
"We wish Mr. de Vellis well in his future endeavors."
March 21, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (3)
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I think that's it's really sad that the guy got fired for doing this. What he does in his off-time should not effect his job unless it's illegel.
Posted by: comfan | Mar 22, 2007 7:45:35 AM
He shouldn't have been fired. De Vellis explored his creativity and expressed his freedom of speech at the same time.
I didn't see anything wrong with the Hillary 1984 video. In fact, it was kind of clever!. For me, he deserves more commendation than condemnation.
Posted by: Amy | Mar 23, 2007 12:19:18 PM
As I proposed before, in a couple years, campaigning could be left to bloggers alone. The blogosphere almost pushed the Dean candidacy into the running in 2004, could it eventually be the entire emphasis behind a campaign.
What is frightening is that with technology growing like it is, you could have a Philip de Vellis creating a lifelike video of a candidate that is entirely fabricated.
Posted by: Danny J Norman | Mar 24, 2007 11:57:02 PM
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