Phil de Vellis, the creator of the viral mashup video "Hillary 1984" whose producer was the biggest online mystery since the identity of lonelygirl15, was outed yesterday by Arianna Huffington.
deVellis immediately fell on his sword and resigned his job at Blue State Digital, a company created by members of Howard Dean's Internet Team. He claims that his employer, Clinton and Obama had no hand in the video, which he says he made on his home computer.
He wrote on Huffington Post "Hi. I'm Phil. I did it. And I'm proud of it." A large number of the 300+ comments he generated were deleted as "abusive."
He says he's a proud Democrat. With friends like him, the Democrats won't need enemies. Frankly, I think deVellis is a spoiler. Too bad he didn't devote his talents to a positive cause.
Nonetheless, deVellis is right when he says:
"This ad was not the first citizen ad, and it will not be the last. The game has changed."
About BL Ochman
Blogger, social media strategy consultant to Fortune 500 companies, and sought-after corporate speaker B.L. Ochman heads the creative team of whatsnextonline.com. She also publishes the Ethics Crisis blog for SRF Global Translations