That “Yes We Can” pro-Obama video that was sweeping the Internet has now been parodied in a new video — an anti-John McCain video. And it is also sweeping the Internet, now appearing on websites and weblogs:
This actually underscores a serious point: in each of the past elections (2004, 2006) the communication and advertising tools at the disposal of almost anyone with a computer and even a shoestring budget have increased in popularity. So what do you have here?
First, there was the Obama video that people found inspiring. So now there’s this video that’s anti-McCain, a take off of the popular Obama ad. The Internet is particularly popular with younger voters: just ask a young person if he/she reads a daily newspaper and the answer you’ll likely get is not much or not at all. They have become oh, so 20th century..which is why newspapers are faced with a crisis.
So this kind of battle — the battle for imagery, using tools and take-offs of images already out there in the Internet culture — is not a small one in 2008. It probably isn’t enough yet to turn the course of an election — but it is enough to influence some perceptions. And what’s cooler than a parody of a popular Internet video…with a political message?
Here’s the original Yes We Can Video and you can compare them:
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.