How to do video campaigning 2

The first attack ad to really get people talking in the 08 presidential race seems to have arrived (hat tip to Political Wire). Unlike previous years this, at first sight, appears to be not the work of some highly paid consultant with a focus group, but a lone geek and their mactop with a grudge against Hilary Clinton.




For those of you (like me) who aren't steeped in geek history its a mash up of the 1984 campaign that launched the apple macintosh on the world (original can be viewed here). What I loved about this video is not only is it a subtle but effective dig at the control freak tendency of the Clinton campaign, but also the clear contrast it draws between Clinton and Obama. Clinton is PC, boring, gray, conformist, bent on world domination; while Obama is apple, cool, cutting edge, free spirited, willing to break the mould, (and no bloody Mitchell and Webb in sight).

Now drawing comparisons with Orwell's 1984 and between apple and PCs is probably too high concept for the audience of a normal attack ad. But its perfect for its medium. The tech-savy netroots activist who is likely to look up a political add on youtube is exactly the kind of person this add will talk to. Genius; plus Obama gets a deniable shot at Clinton for free, and the dead tree press gets to write another article about how the internet is changing campaigning, so everyone's happy (apart from the Clintons of course).