Anti-Clinton ‘1984’ ad rocks… the web!

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Wednesday, 21 March 2007 21:38

Opinion and Analysis

The dramatic anti-Hillary Clinton ad, mashed-up with Apple and Ridley Scott’s original 1984 ad has caused waves around the web with nearly 1.5 million views, while a copy-cat anti-Obama ad is little more than a poor imitation.

The world has seen politics and the Internet collide in the past, with blogging, bloggers and the blogosphere playing an important part in the 2004 US Presidential Election, but in 2007, the era of widespread and ultra inexpensive web video has taken the art of the political message – especially one supposedly created by someone not connected to either campaign – to the next level.

If you’re one of the nearly 1.5m million people worldwide who’ve seen the original anti-Clinton ad called ‘Vote Different’ on YouTube, by a mysterious and anonymous user called ParkRidge47, one thing is for sure: they took some time to craft a clever ad, complete with an appropriately ominous sounding voice and soundtrack and by manipulating Clinton’s image to give it a ghostly, white ‘Big Sister’ look which matches the look and feel of the rest of the original advertisement.

Those who have seen it have witnessed the latest advancement in the world of citizen democracy, where anyone can jump onto a soapbox to be heard by millions of people worldwide, if their message is compelling enough that people are willing to share it and send it on to others.

Given the nearly 1.5m views so far, the anti-Clinton ‘1984’ ad has become an instant web smash hit, despite official videos from politicians having appear on their websites for a while now, especially with politicians declaring their intention to stand for the Presidency. Barack Obama has also claimed his campaign had nothing to do with creating the web video attacking Hillary Clinton, while Hillary herself has laughed off the video and claims not to be concerned.

It has also spawned a whole series of clones, including an anti-Barack ad called ‘Barack 1984’. Unfortunately, like most of the clones, it fails in the production stakes, delivering an experience that is not as gripping or interesting as the original anti-Hillary ad. Gone are the cool sound effects, the echoing voice, even the ghostly colour scheme.

It smacks of a quick job slapped together quickly to create a video response to the anti-Clinton ad. It has received almost 240,000 views than the anti-Clinton and so while is popular, it is much less so, although given the continuing publicity, the views for both ads - and plenty of the other clones or videos taking on some other political theme revolving around the two politicians – will continue going up over time.

There is talk of how much the campaigns would be worth in prime time advertising dollars, although they are to targeted audiences who see the ads as they watch their favorite prime time TV shows. All those who have seen them on YouTube have specifically gone out and sought that content, and they could come from a worldwide audience, meaning many of the people who will vote in those initial primaries may never end up seeing the ads on YouTube, although given the ad’s recent massive popularity online, it has been covered in the mainstream media, giving it free exposure that can only be dreamed of.

But will either video have any real impact on the upcoming primaries to select a candidate? Please read onto the next page for the conclusion...