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'Vote Different' maker steps forward, loses job

Anonymous video maker worked for website tech firm that had done work for Obama. Fingered by Huffington he quits or was fired.
Written by Richard Koman, Contributor
Ariana Huffington was about to out Philip de Vellis - a designer with the firm that created Barack Obama's website - as the creator of the infamous Vote Different YouTube video, which mashes up Apple's 1984 ad with Hillary Clinton's own campaign imagery to create a compelling online ad for Obama, the SF Chronicle reports.

So de Vellis came forward and wrote a post for Huffington in which he admits to authorship and says that he has resigned from his employer, Blue State Digital.

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.

The campaigns had no idea who made it--not the Obama campaign, not the Clinton campaign, nor any other campaign. I made the ad on a Sunday afternoon in my apartment using my personal equipment (a Mac and some software), uploaded it to YouTube, and sent links around to blogs.

... This ad was not the first citizen ad, and it will not be the last. The game has changed.

He says that he decided to resign even though the company had no knowledge of the ad not did its clients - "so as not to harm them, even by implication."

The company, wanting to maintain its credibility as a trustworthy vendor, says that de Vellis was summarily fired.

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.
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