I wonder if Mr. de Vellis may have a case for wrongful termination.

The phrase "Pursuant to company policy regarding outside political work or commentary on behalf of our clients or OTHERWISE..." (emphasis added) suggests that the company may have illegally trampled on his First Amendment rights.

There's a lot more to this story on http://www.solidpolitics.com

Including de Villas' background, including the facts that he lied about his age at YouTube, he lied about "resigning" from the firm and he's posted a lot of inflamatory stuff on the internet.

The only way Obama's "authenticity" thing be legitimately hurt/undercut is if he authorizes something or he himself does something that does so. This was unauthorized, so it's supposed to reflect badly on his campaign? Only in D.C. and only for the national media.

Candidates (Dem or Repub) should not be held responsible for every unauthorized video/post/website ever done. Whether the media understands this or not is a whole other story.

You should go back to journalism school for misleading readers into thinking Obama had something to do with this. Shame on you. Be a real jounalist or stop claiming it's "news". That kind of fraud is as bad as any, Bub.

Phillip de Vellis's political video is brilliant on a number of levels and does indeed forecast the battlelines this political season. He'll have no trouble getting a job as creative director in another politician's campaign. I'd hire him tomorrow and give him complete freedom to create whatever he wanted to help my candidate.

I don't get it... I'm no Obama Supporter, but if I did something like this in my own time (assuming I didn't use company equipment) I could be FIRED?!?

How, exactly, does this square with "Freedom of Speech?" specifically, "Freedom of political speech?"

Blue State Digital are idiots.

Phillip de Vellis is a genius. He won't have any trouble getting a far better situation.

Strange, according to the mainstream media, this was just another "Vast right wing conspiracy" PPHHHHTTTT!!!

Who cares? Don't you have anything better to do?

Did he use company assets? in any way?

If not firing him for political activities on his own time may be a costly mistake. Maybe the managers that pulled the pin on him should have discussed the concept of unjust termination with HR or Legal BEFORE acting to try to placate a customer.If he broke no laws or no company policies, this would be a shaky firing even in a "hire at will, fire at will" state.

I thought that ad was brilliant! Aside from the politics, I just loved the ad redone.
Im sure that guy can place that on his resume and get an awesome job. I was formerly a recruiter and I would love to represent someone that clever!
Good job buddy!

What a bunch of BS over nothing. An individual did this not Obama. I suppose Mrs Clinton keeps tabs on everyone in her organization. But then she is the worlds smartest women, just ask her.

Well, call it a hunch, but I'm guessing a fellow with this guy's talent won't stay unemployed long.

So much for Howard Fineman's assertion that candidates don't control campaigning, that it's something that "happens to them."

Like the original commercial, the 2007 adaptation was brilliant. It's also hilarious, because it is consistent with the way many view Hillary. IT'S A DARN SHAME SOME KID WON'T HAVE RENT MONEY THIS MONTH BECAUSE HE LOST HIS JOB FOR BEING CREATIVE AND DARING. HOPEFULLY, HE WON'T CHANGE.

They should have given the man a big raise instead. That was good work.

The video is fabulous, creative, wonderful. I am no fan of the Clintons, it hits a home run.

so much for free speech. it looks like the bill and hillary machine is not happy about competition. do not piss of the clinton machine!! those on the team include nytimes latimes huffington newsweek time mag wash post and others. at least the cat is out of the bag

So you had a guy fired for taking advantage of his free speech rights?

Sign me up for the Obama (concentration) Camp today!

Wow, what a pro-Hillary stance you are taking.

Big deal. Oh no! Hillary was attacked! Big deal, get life people. It was a wonderful ad, and and this makes Old HIll look worse!

Right, everyone is innocent. Get the scapegoat quick. I even suspect her highness, Hillary Rodham Clinton knew all about it. What a bunch of crap.

I saw the ad. Liked it, sorta, and laughed at it a lot. Very clever. Fire him? Ok, I get it if you're embarassed, but it's not really embarassing to be in favor of your guy/gal. Is it unfair? Maybe all lampooning is unfair by nature. But... It's clever, it's not a "hit piece," and it's not really something to be denying unless I'm way off base. Gotta give props to those clever guys!

It will be fairly reported if you have said that blue state is working also with Bill Richardson campaign and have worked with Tom Vilsack. I want also to add that if you were a little bit interested of what is going on in the web you will find on you tube a lot of negative ads on Senator Obama.
here is one example www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiullH5jU1A
... and there are some worse than this. Just go on You Tube. Time was right when they choose You as person of year. This campaign will be different from any other presidential election that we have seen.

I still fail to see how this "weakens" the Obama campaign? You assert your conclusion without really explaining how you go there...

Let's face it. The creator of this piece is a creative genius. Should he have been fired? Yes, of course. He embarrassed his employer and that should be grounds for termination. Will somebody else hire this guy? Of course they will. If I were in the advertising business, I would hire him.

Only the inside the beltway types care about stuff like this. It is a playground field of gossip and silliness which the average voter in Iowa or New Hampshire could care less about.

It is a great piece of work. It tells the truth.

"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..."

I believe that the real story here is the Chilling effect that a private employer can have on the Freedon of Speech of an American Citizen on his own time by imposing policies that deny him/her their income for personal activity away from the office.

We should think long and hard about the implications of this assumed power.

I loved that AD.

what happened to the far right wing theory.

The power of the Internet and specifically multi media's YouTube clearly shows the strength of the medium and the ever-weakening traditional TV media. Betcha in very short order, traditional network and cable TV AD rates will dramatically fall. So much for the MediaMavens of Madison Avenue. They've lost their touch.. and they are losing their perceived power. It was always simply smoke and mirrors as they buffooned Americans into believing their significance. Hooray for the small indies contributing such wonderful realism to a presidential candidate disaster.

So, how did they find this guy? Did someone abuse their investigative powers?

I'd hire him in a minute. It's hard to create something truly unique and impacting these days . . . obviously, this had an impact. Whether it's lasting or not, only time will tell, but, regardless where these campaigns head from here, cheers Mr. de Vellis - for a job well done!

I guess I am not sure why this hurts either candidate, especially Obama. Why would the media look more critically at Obama if he had nothing to do with the ad. There is no evidence that he did. Also, how does this weaken the Obama campaign? I am sorry but this blog makes a lot of statements without much reasoning to back it up.

...you have to admit, he nailed her true spirit...

WHO really cares. I thought the whole thing was really funny, but of course as a republican I would. I love to watch the candidates try and kill each other in the primaries and then tell every one in the general election they didn't really mean it. But I loved the film.

This are the comments I posted to YouTube:

There are two things about this exercise that require answers.

One, regardless of the failed analog, why are people awestruck by the illegal repurposing of a twenty five year old commercial?

Two, this has been viewed a half-million times and no doubt mentioned countlessly on the yakfests, so the management of YouTube know about it. As it is clearly a copyright infringement, why does YouTube permit its posting?

Beyond that, I wonder why YouTube keeps this posted. The string of comments is pure acid.

I want to respond to this portion of the story: "And -- in this media world of distractions and freelancers and 24/7 yadda yadda, how can an "authentic" candidate keep his "authentic" identity?"

I'll try to keep this short and simple. With more sources availiable for the public to ridicule candidates (the above-referenced "yada yada yada"), there seems to me to be only one way for a candidate to maintain his "authenticity" and that is to be perfectly authentic. However, perfection is difficult and more likely impossible to achieve. So my logical conclusion? Candidates must embrace their imperfections: discuss shortcomings publicly, acknowledge weaknesses, and respond to them constructively. People respect honesty.

Whoever did it is okay by me. Mrs. Bill Clinton (Hillary) has to be destroyed. She's far, far too liberal and dangerous.

So....
A man creates a seminal piece of media and loses his job. Are you kidding me?

And they call Republicans Fascists....

Aren't the Democrats supposed to be the "tolerant" ones?

Two interesting clauses from the statement from the BSD:

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.

. . .

Mr. de Vellis created this video on his own time. It was done without the knowledge of management, and was in no way tied to his work at the firm or our formal engagement [on technology pursuits] with the Obama campaign.

Read them in reverse order, and ask yourself if firing him made any sense at all?

obama is no leader. neither is hillary. democrats should wake up. what a pathetic excuse for a political party. pushing for military defeat, undermining our soldiers, criticising our leaders and our country in time of war is repulsive. obama and hillary and all the democrat non-patriots should be ashamed. yech.

I don't think it will. It's really pissed off Hillary suppporters (the few that exist) in the online community but, everyone else think it's a fabulous video.
I see the faces of the pundit class and they think it's amazing and exciting.
alot of Obama's supporters wished his campaign really did it.
It will still cause the same eruption of creative 'ad' on youtube. This will still keep supporters there. After all, even if he would like to run a different campaign, We know Obama has to deal with one of the dirtiest pols = Hillary.
She wants a fight and wants the mud. part of the reason for obama trying to remain above it all is probably because he knows it's driving Hillary nuts. She is itching to unleash nasties and he has her boxed in.
And the response ad from Hillary points out she copies him. She follows and he leads.

Who cares? I think the whole issue just shows how incredibly petty both camps are. Issues, PLEASE. Mr Obama, don't hide behind the fact you don't have plans for the major issues--the excitement of the Clinton v Obama conflict only carries so far, and in the end Hillary will come out on top because of her experience and her willingness to stick her neck out, even as a junior senator like Obama, and use HER star power, deserved or not, to craft policy. Obama, from what I've seen is a lightweight, and these controversies won't mask that, in the end.

Update: there's a pro-union anti-Wal-Mart connection.

From http://www.solidpolitics.com:

Philip de Vellis, a consultant working on Barack Obama's campaign,
admitted today that he produced the infamous "1984" Hillary Clinton attack
ad.
De Vellis also blogged on Walmartwatch.com, an anti-Wal-Mart website
partially funded by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). The
union's president, Andrew Stern, serves on the board of directors of the
website. In blog postings, de Vellis railed against Wal-Mart

Hillary Clinton served on the Wal-Mart's board of directors for six years....

Obama has won most of his political battles by having surrogates use dirty tricks to discredit his opponents. Look at his history in Illinois. Nothing new here except the target. Hillary Clinton instead of Jack Ryan or George Ryan or......

This isn't going to affect Obama's standing with the public until they connect his pure campaign to the ad in the MSM. Until then, it's under the radar and I doubt it's going to affect voters.

On the other hand, I really think this proves that Obama's campaign isn't really what it says it is. He's said for days that they didn't have the technical prowess or the financial means to do this. As I've said from the beginning, this was a boldfaced lie, and this proves it whether his campaign was connected to this ad or not.

The Obama campaign should be more worried about what’s expected to happen in Hollywood this weekend – from what I hear, the Hillary fundraiser will easily exceed the 1.3 million that Obama raised in Hollywood last March. So all the Hillary haters will have to stop their “she’s lost Hollywood to Obama” babble.

It was a great ad. The underlying message, though, might have been lost on some of the groups most likely to support B.O. I.e., I had to explain the Apple part to my media-savvy, political-writing teenager. Then he liked it more.

And as to the legal case, ain't none. The ad put enormous pressure on Blue State Digital, including accusations of illegality. Any employer has a right to fire an employee whose off-the-clock work exposes the employer to charges of breaking the law.

It might be worth noting that this man is now incredibly famous and I'm sure in high demand. I'm sure he's dancing with glee to be the future of politically creative ads instead of some guy who works on servers.

So, only such ads can be used if they target Republicans??

Politics is a mean game. Obama will have to develop a spine.

It's not really a big deal to get "fired". It serves a purpose to "make a statement" then in a few weeks you get re-hired or, even better, come back under contract making more money.

Okay,it's enough already. We have spent too much time on this. The guy did a GREAT job and Hillary can't take it. She acts like she is being attacked....Hillary it's just the truth. Mr. de Vellis, job well done and for the record, if you don't already have a new job, it's coming and I am sure with great rewards. Your a talented person.....you will be fine.

The media refuses to recognize the elephant seated squarely in the middle of the room video or no video. O'bama is a dud with no more serious credentials to run for president then your run-of-the-mill TV soap actor. Not to mention that Hillary's resume begins and ends with "My husband is Bill Clinton". The two dem frontrunners get their legitimacy from media geniuses like Morton Kondracke and the fools at the NY Times who are looking for anything that is not GW. With their help, Barry & Hillary are both playing the fantasy campaign game where they pretend to be running for president of the United States---I am sure hoping that their mothers call them for dinner soon.

As I proposed before, in a couple years, campaigning could be left to bloggers alone. The blogosphere almost pushed the Dean candidacy into the running in 2004, could it eventually be the entire emphasis behind a campaign.

What is frightening is that with technology growing like it is, you could have a Philip de Vellis creating a lifelike video of a candidate that is entirely fabricated.