Several members of the Wieden+Kennedy team that produced the Eastwood spot were among the creative professionals who privately supported Obama’s first election campaign. Creative director Aaron Allen, for example, created a striking poster, called “United the States of America,” on candidate Obama’s behalf. The poster shows an Obama silhouette bringing together red and blue spheres meant to represent America’s partisan division. His official bio notes that he “also works on personal art projects, including a poster for the 2008 Obama campaign that was shown in several galleries and publications.”

The ad’s art director, Jimm Lasser, created an entire art exhibit in New York around Nike-style shoes bearing Obama’s image. Another of the creative directors, Michael Tabtabai has used his Twitter account recently to send out the message “Obama x Incredible Hulk. America STRONG!” and linking to an image of an action doll of the president looking like the comic book super hero.

The Eastwood spot actually was produced by Los Angeles and New York-based Chelsea Pictures, which selected David Gordon Green, best known for the comedy film Pineapple Express, to direct the ad…

While the background of some of Wieden+Kennedy’s creative team probably will fuel further conservative suspicions, there’s also some online evidence suggesting that there was neither consultation nor collaboration between the agency and the Obama reelection campaign. Following the president’s Labor Day speech to a Detroit audience, creative director Joe Staples tweeted, “I think Obama just paraphrased our ad in his Labor Day speech [from Detroit] Holy crap.”