Democratization May Be Big Brother In Disguise

Campaign advertising has always been a cutthroat creative medium for political candidates to praise themselves and criticize their opponents. Even in those disguised as unbiased public service announcements, there is always a little line of text at the bottom of the screen that says "Paid for by the (fill-in-the-blank) Campaign." But now in the age of YouTube and cheap yet high-quality user-created video content, average people are getting into the political circus.

"Hillary 1984," the Obama-supporting spoof of the iconic 1984 Macintosh commercial where a hammer is hurled at a Big Brother computer screen (symbolizing IBM), has been on YouTube for about two weeks and has been viewed by over 2 million people. Now it is known that the creator, an Internet professional named Phil de Vellis, worked for a firm that supported the Obama campaign but claims to have created the commercial on his Mac computer on a Sunday afternoon. "The specific point of the ad," he wrote, "was that Obama represents a new kind of politics, and that Sen. Clinton's 'conversation' is disingenuous. And the underlying point was that the old political machine no longer holds all the power." de Vellis has since resigned from his company, Blue State Digital, while they assert that he was fired.

de Vellis himself has said that now that his "citizen ad" has taken off, "the game has changed." The average citizen has the means to create an impact on the 2008 Presidential Election using basic software. I am a firm believer in the First Amendment and value the democratization of the Internet, so I support the power of knowledge and influence that the public has been given. However, with all the misinformation given by traditional campaign ads, I think citizen ads have the potential to muddy the already murky water. Democratization gives power to the people, but most people are not informed enough to use that power effectively. Unless the United States decides to convert to a truly democratic society, there will always be those with power and those with a little more power to tip the scales.

While "Hillary 1984" may be a peak into the democratized future of campaign advertising, the fact that it was created by a professional leaves me feeling that this might just be a passing phase. I think the majority of Americans are apathetic (just look at the percentage of people who actually vote--it is very disturbing how low it is) and those who will put in the time to get their political views heard will be those who either have a professional, personal or ethical stake in the process. I hate to think so little of my fellow Americans but again, the public is misinformed, or just not informed at all. This leaves our country vulnerable for Orwell's prophecy. Maybe Big Brother is not so far away.



Noyes, Katherine. "'Hillary 1984' Creator: 'The Game Has Changed'." TechNewsWorld. 22 Mar 2007.