Hillary 1984 ad-creator unmasked and loses job

First, there was the ad comparing Hillary Clinton to George Orwell's "Big Brother" - and using the old 1984 ad from Apple to do it.

Then, there was the not-quite-as-artful response ad doing the same to Barack Obama.

Today, Arianna Huffington managed to figure out who created the ad (though she's not really saying how).

Well, today I can end the guessing. Last night, we sent out a challenge to the HuffPost team asking them to hit the phones and contact all their sources. As a result, we have learned the video was the work of Philip de Vellis, who was the Internet communications director for Sherrod Brown's 2006 Senate campaign, and who now works at Blue State Digital, a company created by members of Howard Dean's Internet Team.

And now, the creator - Blue State Digital's Phil de Vellis - has left his job. He says he resigned, his ex-employer says he was fired. From the AP:

He said he produced the ad outside of work and that neither Blue State nor the Obama campaign was aware of his role in the ad. "But it raises some eyebrows, so I thought it best that I resign and not put them in that position." Thomas Gensemer, the managing director of Blue State Digital, said de Vellis was fired. "Mr. de Vellis created this video on his own time," Gensemer said in a statement. "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." In its own statement, the Obama camp said the campaign "had no knowledge and had nothing to do with the creation of the ad. "Blue State Digital has separated ties with this individual and we have been assured he did no work on our campaign's account."

De Vellis blogged his thoughts at Huffington Post:

Hi. I'm Phil. I did it. And I'm proud of it. I made the "Vote Different" ad because I wanted to express my feelings about the Democratic primary, and because I wanted to show that an individual citizen can affect the process. There are thousands of other people who could have made this ad, and I guarantee that more ads like it--by people of all political persuasions--will follow.

Wow. Always remember rule #1: Don't get fired.

But producing the coolest netroots ad of all time is a pretty spectacular way to get fired, if it's gonna happen.