Unofficial Barack Obama Ad Attacks Hillary Clinton Online

An online political video has sparked controversy from the Internet to the print media. The ad, a riff on Apple's "1984" advertisement directed by Ridley Scott to promote the first Macintosh computers, has been altered by an anonymous editor as a campaign ad for Barack Obama.

In the altered version, the "overlord" on the video screen, who is brainwashing the masses (a jab at IBM when the commercial first aired), has been replaced by video clips of Hillary Clinton. In the clips, she soothingly reassures the masses that she wants to have a discussion with them, that she doesn't want to tell them what to do, that discussion is good.

In the original commercial, a woman yielding a sledgehammer runs through the auditorium, chased by police, and throws the hammer at the screen, which explodes, thereby freeing the brainwashed masses. In the altered version, the woman's t-shirt has a Barack Obama logo on it. The text at the end of the commercial now says, "On January 14th, the Democratic primary will begin. And you'll see why 2008 won't be like "1984."

The Apple computer logo has been replaced by a rainbow-colored letter 'O' and the address for Barack Obama's website is shown.

The video is posted multiple times on YouTube, and a quick count shows that the video has been viewed at least 600,000 times.

The Obama camp has said it had nothing to do with the unauthorized commercial, and the Clinton campaign has refused comment so far.

But the advertisement brings up what will likely be a huge topic over the next year and a half as candidates try to maximize their war chests. The Internet.

In previous elections, the Internet has played a small role in determining the President of the United States. In 2004, Vermont's Howard Dean used the Internet to great effect as a grassroots way of going after donations, but his campaign fizzled and the Internet buzz lessened.

This year, Hillary Clinton has already set up a website that attempts to recruit women voters to her camp, and John McCain has set up a website to stream video and audio clips and also, of course, accepts donations. But this new way of getting the public's attention may even the playing field, according to some experts. No longer will the top candidates be forced to have tens of millions of dollars in advertising money in order to have a voice. In the digital age, anyone with a camera and editing software can earn a seat at the table, a thought which should be unsettling to the big guns.

Sources:

www.youtube.com/watch
www.abcnews.go.com/Politics/story
www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi