Obama Meets Fogg

This speech is of one of Barack Obama's victory speeches. What this video effectively does is it makes the audience feel like they are the ones who are responsible for the change in America. They are the people who are responsible for electing Barack Obama as President, and these same people are the ones who will benefit from this the most. In the video, he portrays his success as a win for everybody, not just a win for him and his political party. He is using his ability to speak very fluently and effectively to persuade the people to believe and buy into what he is saying. In Fogg's model, Fogg states three things must occur at the same time in order for the speech to be effective. Motivation, ability, and triggers are the things people must experience simultaneously in order to be affected by the speech. In this speech, he does a good job of making all three of these things happen; he gets the people to really buy into what he is saying and by using this model he was able to make the people believe in the change he is promising.

Motivation - A big part of this speech comes from him telling the people this time must be different. This next term for the presidency must be different. It cannot duplicate what has been done in the past. As he has said over and over again what we have been doing before, simply has not worked and it is time for a change. It has to be different. He empowers the people throughout the speech by repeatedly using the phrase, "yes we can" which he implores the people to believe they can. They can make the change; they can voice their opinion; they can be recognized; and they can make a difference. He tells the people, "we are ready". He takes away the question: is the country ready for change, by telling the people they are ready. He tells them they need the change and they need the difference. When he gives them the power of telling them they are ready for change, than the people feel empowered and they feel like they are ready, they can do it, and things do have to be different.

Ability - In this speech, he is very good at giving the people the ability to make the change and the ability to see all the different things that need to take place. One of the big issues he tells during the speech is "you made it happen". By telling the crowd this, he makes them feel like they did it. They are the ones who made all this happen and they are the ones who are responsible for all of this. Something he has made them believe, which has not been the case with the other former presidents as of late in the country. One of the big issues he presses is that he does a good job of personalizing the minority. By trying to tell the "little guy" they can now become the "big guy" makes them feel very important, wanted and needed, something they have not felt in the past. He makes the minority feel like they have a say, an opinion and a vote, and not only that, but they will be listened to as well. He tells the people they have the ability to unite the party's. There does not need to be separation and distance between the people any longer.

Triggers - The Triggers he uses in this speech is what really gets the people excited. When Obama tells the people change is whats happening in America, they love it. They want change, they want to see the difference and just the mention of this gives them the energy and the excitement to support Obama. He tells the people it will not be like it used to be, the big company's will no longer run everything and have control over everything. This means the smaller people, the smaller companies, and the smaller businesses will now be able to prosper and have a say in the country. They will not have to just sit back and take a back seat any longer. He tells the people the minority will now become the majority. The people at this speech loved this. They loved hearing they are going to matter and they are going to count for something. What Obama tells these people, whether it comes to pass or not, the people love the idea and the thought of becoming a somebody from now on in the country, whereas before they have felt neglected and unappreciated.

This speech was a great example, I think, of a speech that uses Fogg's theory to near perfection. He had the motivation, he provided the ability and brought up several triggers the people were really willing and to support him. He made points known he knew the people wanted to hear and he knew would get him the support he needed. When he gives a speech like this with the intentions of gaining the people's support, using Fogg's theory was the perfect way to do it. He shows the people what they were getting by telling them they are the ones who made it happen and then telling them what is going to happen is what they have wanted to happen all along. He delivered the speech accordingly and proved it to be very effective for the people who were there to listen to it.