The year of the YouTube election is a phrase that has been kicking around Organic since last fall.  Video footage of incumbent Virginia Senator George Allen calling a dark-skinned heckler a "macaca" at a campaign rally was posted by said-macaca to YouTube, helping challenger Jim Webb squeak to victory, which in turn tipped the balance of power in the Senate to Democrats.

Three years ago, MoveOn.org experimented with user-generated advertising during the 2004 presidential campaign.  But since that time, the rise of YouTube has created a much broader and perhaps more democratic platform and for any kind of individual creativity, including political attack ads.  And so I present the first salvo in the second (?) YouTube election: Hillary 1984, a skillful and anonymous mashup of the iconic Apple ad. 

Read more, including reaction from Barack Obama’s camp, in  The San Francisco Chronicle.

Misha Cornes