"Yes, We Can" Video Response, Pg 69

The "Yes, We Can" video ultimately wants it's viewers, the American public, to vote for Obama. This is enforced only in the end of the video, where the word "VOTE" appears letter by letter on the screen, in red text, the only color in the video. Obama's speech is a powerful call to all Americans, that "we," together, can do anything and everything we need to do for our country. The video itself is in black and white, and depicts many, many people of various social and racial groups all singing the words to Obama's speech. This is a very strong appeal to our democratic ideals of equality and fairness across all groups. Obama himself is also pictured in the video, but often only for a few seconds before the video cycles to another singer. This places emphasis on the "we" of the video, making it appear that Obama is simply a part of that group; no more important that the rest of the singers. However, his voice does underscore the singing for the entire video, giving his words the proper tone of authority and guidance for all the rest. It is established that every viewer is a part of the "we" that is talked about. The video as a whole wants us to connect our positive connotation of justice, equality, and democracy to Obama himself. Just as his speech guides all the singers in the music video, he will guide us as a country.