Get ready for another “I hate the media” post.
First, let’s start off by taking a little looky-loo at this video:
Powerful stuff, huh?
If you haven’t seen that before, then I’ll explain. That commercial aired in 1984, during the Superbowl, and it introduced the world to the brand new Macintosh computer. Yep, that was the first time the general public had ever heard of Apple’s “Macintosh” personal computer. It aired only once, but the dystopian, Orwellian images in the commercial have become part of our cultural zeitgeist. In the original ad, Gestapo-like militants chase a beautiful, athletic woman through a crowd of apathetic and subjugated citizens that are lulled into submission by a Big Brother like overlord. When the woman gets close to the screen, she hurls a large hammer at the screen breaking it, and in turn breaking the spell over the subjugating viewers.
Now watch this one:
Several weeks ago, an anonymous user uploaded that video, which is obviously a manipulated version of the Macintosh ad, onto YouTube, and then proceeded to post links to it all over the blogsphere. As you just saw, the hammer-thrower now sports Barack Obama’s logo on her shirt, and on the Big-Brother titantron, Hillary Clinton lulls the apathetic crowd into submission with her totally boring, “It takes a village” rhetoric.
The chuckle-heads on the cable media stations have gone ape-shit over this thing. First, the conservatives are saying that it illustrates how the democrats will institute an Orwellian-like society if they gain power, as if the republicans haven’t already started that job. The retards in the media have been clamoring for quotes from Hillary and Barack, hoping that one of them had the inside scoop on the video, but neither of them knew anything about who posted it online.
Everyone in the media seems to think it took ILM wizardry to create that thing. It didn’t. I could do that, and I’m a horrible editor. And it wasn’t created by conservative to denigrate the democrats. It was created by Phil de Vellis, and surprise, surprise, he’s a democrat. Here’s what Phil had to say on The Huffington Post in regards to his political affiliation:
“Let me be clear: I am a proud Democrat, and I always have been. I support Senator Obama. I hope he wins the primary. (I recognize that this ad is not his style of politics.) I also believe that Senator Clinton is a great public servant, and if she should win the nomination, I would support her and wish her all the best.”
Huh. He sounds like a reasonable guy. What a disappointment.
There are literally thousands of political videos on YouTube just like this one. I just don’t understand the obsession with de Vellis’.
The other thing that really irritates me, is that despite what people are saying on the news stations, using that commercial in a manipulated video isn’t a new idea. The guys over at YTMND have been superimposing images onto that Mac ad since early 2005. The original page on YTMND posited Conan O’Brien as Big Brother, and since then meme has grown in creativity and absurdity.
HEY! de Vellis’ video isn’t original! Stop broadcasting these non-stories! Do some real journalistic investigation you hackney pin-heads! We have a lot of problems in our country, and you’re focusing on some dickhead’s YouTube video!? STOP THAT!
yeah someone suggested I post that video on my blog and I just thought, “why, it’s not that good” – I agree, it’s a non-story.