Clinton YouTube vid gains popularity online

US election turns nasty

21 March 2007 12:25 GMT / By Stuart Miles

The YouTube video comparing Sen. Hillary Clinton to Big Brother has been viewed over 1 million times in the last couple of days as the media spotlight turns its attention to the video sharing website.

The 74-second clip which a copy of the now famous 1984 Apple ad for its Macintosh computer but inserts Clinton in the starting role finishes with a message from her democratic opponent Barack Obama, however he and his camp have denied involvement.

The ad portrays Clinton on a huge television screen addressing robotic humans in a stark, futuristic hall. As in the Apple ad, a female athlete tosses a hammer at the screen, destroying Clinton's image with an explosive flash. Then this text: "On January 14th the Democratic primary will begin. And you will see why 2008 isn't going to be like '1984'".

The YouTube video, which is the first for a political campaign moves the battlelines for political strategists, ad experts, and journalists as they all now look to see how they can tame and use the Internet to get across their message.

Asked about the Macintosh video on Tuesday, Clinton commented on a previous popular video on YouTube with her singing the Star-Spangled Banner: "I'm just happy if it's taking attention away from my singing. My singing was bad enough. I'm just happy that nobody is tuning in to that".

"You can expect Gordon Brown to a Nike ad entitled 'Just Tax it' anytime soon", One reader posted in our forum.