1984 Anti-Hillary Ad Creator Revealed

My good friend Nordette Adams brings to my attention on her blog the fact that the person responsible for the anti-Hillary "1984" attack video that invokes Barack Obama has been unveiled. The details are laid out here:

Hillary 1984 Creator Identified

In a nutshell, he's worked for a firm, Blue State Digital that is working with the Obama's campaign on the technology side. Note I say "worked". Depending on whom you talk to he either quit just ahead of the axe or was fired yesterday as his identity was about to be disclosed by huffingtonpost.com.

Their full, official statement is enclosed here:

"Statement from Thomas Gensemer, Managing Director, 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. 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.

For more information contact Thomas Gensemer at thomas [at] bluestatedigital.com "

I think we have here the classic lack of realization of the cascade and reactive effect of our actions. The gentleman may have thought he was making a statement that will aid his candidate of choice (Obama) and hurt the candidate in his path (Clinton), but the truth is that every cute idea is not a strategically or tactically good one and this one creates a mosh pit wherein both candidates are ultimately undermined.

Of course, we may never know this gentleman's real motives or intent, or if this was just a bumbling attempt with a bit of techno-flair (hey, I coined another word!). Time may tell whether or not he and his video end up being a boon or a bone to the skull of the Obama campaign.

Welcome to 2008. 1984 never came.