You may or may not have seen this yet, but I picked this up on my feed-reader today and found it quite fascinating. Will.i.am from the Black Eyed Peas has put together a video in support of Barack Obama featuring a number of other celebrities.
The Yes We Can video could play a significant role in determining who will be the next leader of the United States, and as we all know that does not just affect those individuals in the States, but all of us across the world. We often look at videos and have massive debates over what's hot and what's not – it's a part of what we are and what we do here at Quirk. And boy doesn't this drive home the point of how important viral videos can be and the influence they can have if done properly and used correctly?
I have by no means been following the US presidential campaigns, but even I get goosebumps while sitting here and watching this as well as a surge of inspiration flowing through my veins. Some of the comments have suggested that Obama could be the next Martin Luther King, and watching this makes it difficult to argue with that.
Obviously this has nothing on Jacob Zuma's Umshini Wami, but if you aren't one of the 4 million individuals to have watched this clip, do yourself a favour. Whatever your opinion on the political situation in the US this has to touch you.
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4million+ views of this and the same video uploaded to youtube by 2 other users has had 750k+ views 3.7 million+ views.
I don't know - this is shaping up to be a very tight race, and a video like this might just swing the balance in favour of one of the contestants.
During the elections proper it might not have as significant an effect as I'd expect most voters to choose based on an ideal or stance, but with the primaries, where two members of the same party are going at it all guns blazing, this might play a crucial role.
I know little about US politics, and wouldn't really know the pro's and con's between Obama and Clinton - but a touch point like this could just sway me.
I'm rather cynical when it comes to this kind of thing, but if ever a politician was being shaped into an iconic character , ready for media consumption,its Obama.
Its definitely moving in a 'oh my god, Bush is really that dumb and uninspired!' kind of way...
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I think we overestimate the role of videos such as this one in in an election campaign, Michael Moore's films didn't affect the outcome of the 2004 election George Bush was still elected for another 4 years.
Obama is currently leading the way in the nomination of the democratic candidate and I think it probably has more to do with his ability to inspire people to create stuff like this...
Posted by Morountodun on 2008/02/16