Vote Different, Vote Smart and the Zogby Poll
- by Mia T, 3.22.07
d mashup, 'Vote Different' is well done, elegant and rather sophisticated, technically.
Fiddling with perfection shouldn't be done lightly, and Ridley Scott's brilliant dystopian vision is perfection. Staying within the physical margins of the original Apple '1984' ad accounts for much of the aesthetic success of 'Vote Different.'
But there is a problem with the message (and therein lies the impetus for my mashup of that mashup).
Unlike in the original Apple ad, the focus of the 'Vote Different' message is the mindless follower, not Big Brother, or in this case, hillary clinton.
The reason for this disparity is Big Brother. The original Big-Brother image was ominous, looming. The hillary image is not.
Recall that the 'Vote Different' hillary image came from her "I'm in" vid. hillary clinton was chintzed and powdered and gauzy-focused for that video for the very purpose of obscuring her always-present menacing aura.
The resultant hillary image was, thus, the very antithesis of Big Brother... or Big Sister, if you will....
And that is why today's Zogby poll got the results it did. The Democrats were offended. It was they who were the butt of the ad. They are mindless zombies. hillary clinton is just a chintzed and powdered and gauzy-focused celeb on a large-screen tv.
The purpose of my video, 'Vote Smart,' was to put the focus back on Big Brother, back on the clinton menace, back on the clinton abuse of women, on their abuse of power, on their willful terrorism failure.
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"The power of the harasser, the abuser, the rapist depends above all on the silence of women." 1 
VOTE SMART: A WARNING TO ALL WOMEN ABOUT HILLARY CLINTON
MY RESPONSE TO
'VOTE DIFFERENT'
(Obama-Apple 1984 Ad Mashup)
(YouTube video--please FReep)
by Mia T, 3.11.07
HILLARY ON THE COUCH: IS MISSUS CLINTON MENTALLY FIT?
by Mia T, 01.05.07
STALINIST RISING?
HILLARY CLINTON ABUSE OF POWER
(WHERE IS THE UNREDACTED BARRETT REPORT ANYWAY?)
by Mia T, 2.07.07
Released: March 22, 2007
Zogby Video Poll: Backlash! Hillary Benefits, Obama loses in '1984' Parody Ad Skirmish
But new survey of likely Democratic voters shows most won't be swayed by the online video parody
Twoñthirds of likely Democratic primary voters who had viewed the 'Hillary 1984' video now sweeping across the Internet and the American political landscape said it will not change their opinions of presidential candidates Hillary Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois, a new Zogby Interactive video survey shows.
But the remaining oneñthird of likely primary voters were three times more likely to favor Clinton over Obama after seeing the video, the survey shows. Twentyñone percent said they were either 'offended' or 'bothered' by the video, and that it made them more likely to support Clinton as a result. Just 7% said they were either 'entertained' or 'excited' by the video and were, as a result, more likely to support Obamaís run for the nomination.
Respondents viewed the 74ñsecond video, which was embedded inside the Zogby Interactive survey, before answering questions. The survey, conducted March 19ñ21, 2007, included 1,805 respondents overall and carries a margin of error of +/ñ 2.4 percentage points. The survey includes a subset of 796 likely Democratic primary voters, which carries a margin of error of +/ñ 3.6 percentage points.
SEE THE "HILLARY 1984" VIDEO HERE!
The parody video is a takeñoff on an Apple Computer ad based on George Orwellís novel, 1984. It depicts Hillary Clinton as a 'Big Sister' speaking to 'zombies', and was designed to puncture the notion that Clinton, who has held substantial leads in national public opinion polls in the race for her partyís nomination, is the inevitable nominee and that everyone must fall into line behind her campaign.
Asked whether they were entertained by the video, a narrow plurality of 44% of likely Democratic primary voters agreed, while 40% said it was not entertaining.
While 34% of likely voting Democrats said it was a 'meanñspirited attack on the Clintons,' another 19% said it was an 'insightful commentary on an effort by the Clintons to dominate the Democratic Party presidential nomination process.' Other respondents said the ad was confusing or not very creative. Some complained that such attacks should be saved for the 2008 general election campaign against Republicans. A small percentage of Obama supporters (11%) said they were offended by the 'Hillary 1984' video and were, as a result, more likely to support Clinton instead.
There was a substantial difference in how respondents reacted, depending on their age. By a three-to-two margin, younger Democratic respondents (age 18-29) were more likely to say they thought the video was more of a mean-spirited attack on the Clintons than an insightful commentary. As respondents got older, the less pleased they were about the video. Among those age 65 and older, they were six times more likely to say the video was a mean-spirited attack.
Asked if the Obama campaign should repudiate the video and call for it to be taken down, 43% of Democrats agreed, while 38% disagreed, and 19% said they were unsure. The survey shows an Obama repudiation of the video would help him ñ 38% said such an act by Obama would make them more likely to support him, while 15% said a repudiation would make them less likely to support Obama.
Late Wednesday it was reported that a worker for an Internet development company that is under contract with the Obama campaign was responsible for the video. Until then, the identity of the video creator was unknown. Obama campaign officials had said they had no connection to the video and were in the dark as to who produced it. The producer of the video has been fired from his job. Zogby respondents did not know of the video producerís identity when they answered questions in this survey, which was out of the field hours before the creatorís identity was made known.
The Zogby video survey demonstrates the power of online video in the world of politics today, as more than a third of likely Democratic voters ñ 37% ñ said they had seen the 'Hillary 1984' parody video before taking the Zogby poll. The video only hit wide distribution on the Internet late Sunday night. One in three (33%) said they had also talked about the video with friends and colleagues before taking the Zogby survey.
Interestingly, respondents, including Republicans, Democrats, and independents, were evenly split over whether such videos were a negative force on the political discourse of the U.S. While 45% said it was bad for the political discourse, 45% said it was not harmful. The other 10% were unsure.
(3/22/2007)
