On March 5, ParkRidge47 posted the video Vote Different on YouTube. The next day, xxxgrimREAPERx posted it as 1984and since then, people have been around the URL in emails and IM messages. Then, on Sunday, the San Francisco Chronicle wrote about the video and it crossed over into the traditional mainstream media.

Everyone has to share their comments about how important this video is. It will become, people argue, the iconic video indicating the transition from a broadcast era of politics to a new era of politics. Instead of being a half million dollar advertisement, it is something that anyone could produce. It represents a fundamentally new style of politics.

Well, whenever such grandiose claims come along, someone always needs to present a different view point. Let me take a crack at that. First, using Apple advertisements to communicate a political message online isn’t anything new. Back in 2003, a bunch of grassroots volunteers created the I Switched to Dean online video campaign. People shared the URL, bought the DVD. YouTube wasn’t around at the time, and it didn’t cross over into the traditional mainstream the way Vote Different has, so they haven’t become the icon that people are predicting Vote Different will be.

As to being something that anyone could make, well, I think that might be an overstatement as well. I spend time talking at various conferences encouraging people to start making their own videos. Many people have cellphones that can shoot video. Others have digital cameras that can shoot good video, and others have gotten digital video cameras that can shoot great videos. Yet when I speak at conferences, very few people know how to shoot a video with their cameras and then get it online. Those who do rarely have any idea about how to do more than the most rudimentary video editing, and those who can edit, rarely are well versed in framing a political message. I know very few people that could have pulled off a video like Vote Different.

Will the video encourage others to learn how to shoot video with the devices they already have, learn how to upload, learn how to edit, and learn how to frame a message? I hope so. If that happens, then the video could end up being incredibly important.