Apple parody ad author comes clean

By Iain Thomson

Mar 23 2007 11:52AM

1984 anti-Hillary Clinton ad creator admits role.

The creator of an online advert that parodies Apple's seminal 1984 Super Bowl advert has revealed his identity, and promptly lost his job.

The advert used footage from film director Ridley Scott's famous TV commercial based on George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, which launched Apple during the 1984 Super Bowl.

The new version uses much of the same footage, substituting Big Brother with Hillary Clinton.

The spoof advert, which ends with a link to the campaign website of Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama, went up on YouTube over the weekend and has already had over 400,000 viewings.

Obama, who has vowed to run a clean campaign, has confirmed that his staff had nothing to do with the video.

Speculation has been mounting as to the identity of the author, YouTube member 'ParkRidge47'. (Hillary Clinton was born in Park Ridge, Illinois in 1947.)

Some thought it was an attempt by Republicans to discredit both Democratic front runners, while others saw it as a way for Obama to run attack adverts without besmirching his reputation.

Last night political blog Huffington Post carried the answer. The work belonged to Phil de Vellis, who works for IT consultancy Blue State Digital.

"I did it. And I'm proud of it. The campaigns had no idea who made it. Not the Obama campaign, not the Clinton campaign, nor any other campaign," de Vellis wrote in a blog entry.

"I made the ad on a Sunday afternoon in my apartment using my personal equipment [a Mac and some software], uploaded it to YouTube, and sent links around to blogs.

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

De Vellis added that his company had no idea that he was the author, but that he has since resigned to avoid any embarrassment to his employers.

However, several political consultants are expected to compete for his services in the future as the advert has caused a storm in the US and proved more watchable than any professionally prepared video messages.