Office of the Independent Blogger

I haven’t touched on it yet, but perhaps I should’ve. There’s a big advertisement on YouTube that attacks Hillary and has made major waves in the news. It’s nothing special — actually, it’s a piece of crap — but people pay attention to it because it’s really the first attack ad built on Cyberspace. Or rather, it’s the first to gain nationwide attention.

The infamous anti-Clinton video is north of 2 million views on YouTube.com and climbing. In case you’ve been unable to take a break from the search for little Danni Lynn’s father long enough to sneak a peek at the video, it spoofs the famous 1984 commercial in which Apple Computer introduced its Macintosh personal computer by attacking larger rival IBM as a bleak, Orwellian authoritarian. In place of the original image, Hillary Clinton’s face is inserted into the floating video screen. She is shown repeating one of her stock “voter conversations” as grimy, hollowed-eyed men in shapeless tunics march in lock step into an auditorium. Clinton’s voice drones on as the men take their seats.

Suddenly, a woman dressed in running gear sprints down the aisle toward the screen that features Clinton’s disembodied head. The runner, the only person shown in full color in the video, spins around and around and launches a sledgehammer into the screen, causing it to explode. The video ends with type scrolling up on the screen that says, “On Jan. 14, the Democratic primary will begin. And you’ll see why 2008 won’t be like 1984.” The final screen shows the Apple logo reshaped into an “O” (for “Obama,” get it?) under which the words BarackObama.com materialize.

It’s somewhat sad that something so unimportant and uninspiring is gaining national attention.

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 24th, 2007 at 4:56 pm and is filed under Outside Retort (Current Affairs).