Background Information: The song was written by Will.I.Am. His inspiration came from Barack Obama's personality, goals, and his platform. Will.I.Am wrote the song based on what Barack Obama was advocating for. Will.I.Am was supporting John Kerry when he met Barack Obama for the first time. The lyrics of the song are direct quotations from Barack Obama's concession speech during the primaries. It was an accident when he came across Obama's speech and it inspired him because it made him think of Martin Luther King's, John F Kennedy's and other leaders' speeches. The song, "Yes We Can", was awarded the first Emmy for best new approaches in daytime entertainment.
In The Lesson: As noted in Lesson 3, students will view the "Yes We Can" music video from President Obama's 2008 campaign in order to show a variety of methods of campaign advertising. Explain to students that campaign ads come in different formats because they need to be suitable for the audience the candidate wants to reach. For example, a candidate isn't going to use a billboard ad if the majority of voters they want to reach live in rural areas with no billboards. Remind students that although they are creating a poster for their campaign ad, keep in mind who their audience is and that there are other formats that presidential candidates use, such as commercials, music videos, yard signs, billboards, flyers, etc.