“ParkRidge47”, the creator of the anti-Hillary “Vote Different” ad which utilized footage from Apple's “1984” Macintosh computer ad from the same year, has revealed himself to be Phil de Vellis, a former employee of Blue State Digital, a company which does software development and web hosting for the Barack Obama campaign.
De Vellis says that neither the campaign nor his former employer knew he had a hand in it. He wrote an editorial in the Huffington Post today taking responsibility for the spot, which rocketed virally across the internet last week.
Said De Vellis: “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. There are thousands of other people who could have made this ad, and I guarantee that more ads like it–by people of all political persuasions–will follow.”
De Vellis said he made the ad on a Sunday afternoon with his Mac and then sent it around to blogs after uploading it to YouTube. He also makes clear his party affiliation: “I am a proud Democrat, and I always have been. I support Senator Obama. I hope he wins the primary. (I recognize that this ad is not his style of politics.) I also believe that Senator Clinton is a great public servant, and if she should win the nomination, I would support her and wish her all the best.”
Since the ad was released, De Vellis says he has resigned from his position at Blue State Digital. From the look of things, however, it doesn't appear as if he'll have trouble finding employment elsewhere.
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