Apple ad remake on Hillary Clinton sparks political controversy

A 74-second ad posted on popular video sharing website YouTube against U.S. presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton, which is warmly received by Internet viewers, has sparked controversy with its possible political implications.

The "Vote Different" ad, a remake of Apple's famous 1984 advertisement for it Macintosh computers, shows Clinton addressing emotionless followers sitting in silence before a giant television screen, and conveys a message in the end favoring her rival for nomination Barrack Obama.

It portrays Clinton, the Democratic front-runner for the 2008 presidential election, as an ominous Big Brother figure, while portraying Obama, as the symbol of a new generation.

Some advertising professionals said the ad has excellent creative value and strongly conveys the dominance of the new over the old, and also underscores the fact that the Internet is becoming an unbridled medium to air one's views and a major tool in political campaigns.

The ad, first put on the website about two weeks ago by an anonymous poster signed ParkRidge47, had more than 1 million hits as of Tuesday afternoon. Obama's campaign maintains it had nothing to do with the video.

"In some ways, it's the democratization of the campaign process, but it's not something that we had anything to do with or were aware of," Obama said Monday night when asked about the video on CNN's "Larry King Live."

"Frankly, given what it looks like, we don't have the technical capacity to create something like this. It's pretty extraordinary, " Obama told King.

Analysts said the video is representative of the multiplying power and democracy of the Internet, and is a harbinger of a brave new era of unauthorized "viral" political ads made by individuals working independently of campaigns and consultants.

However, the ad could be a victim of its own success and raise potential questions of copyright infringement, a newspaper report said Tuesday.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, a spokesman for Apple said he did not know who produced the political video and repeatedly declined to answer questions about the company's reaction -- or whether it was considering legal action.

Source: Xinhua