The Yes Men
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The Yes Men are a
Background
According to Servin, the Yes Men concept initially sprang from their creation of a fake website spoofing the World Trade Organization. To the surprise of Servin and Vamos, many believed the site to be authentic, and the two were consequently contacted to speak at a conference in Austria. Since this time, the Yes Men have continued performing large-scale hoaxes, in what they describe as a collaborative effort with journalists to help the media tell stories which they believe are important.[3]
The Yes Men often deploy a satirical approach: they pose as a powerful entity (typically a corporate or government representative or executive) and make ridiculous and shocking comments that caricature the ideological position of the organization or person. Furthermore, they acknowledge the idea that many corporate or government entities manipulate their ideology using
On occasion, the Yes Men's phony spokesperson will make announcements that represent fictitious scenarios for the
The Yes Men have posed as spokespeople for the WTO,
Their experiences were documented in the film The Yes Men,
Their third film, The Yes Men Are Revolting, premiered at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival.
The Yes Men encourage activist and student groups to make their voices heard through crashing conferences, creating fake websites, and getting arrested.[10]
Projects
George W. Bush
One of the Yes Men's first pranks was the satirical website gwbush.com
, established for the
In 2004, the Yes Men went on tour posing as the group "Yes, Bush Can!" and encouraged supporters to sign a "Patriot Pledge" agreeing to keep
Ice Age Petition
The Yes Men posed as working as part of the
Dow Chemical
On December 3, 2004, the twentieth anniversary of the
On their fake Dow Chemical website, the Yes Men said that Dow Chemical Company had no intention whatsoever of repairing the damage.[22] The real company received considerable backlash, and both the real Dow and the phony Dow denied the statements, but Dow took no real action.
The Yes Men decided to pressure Dow further, so as "Finisterra," Bichlbaum went on the news to claim that Dow planned to liquidate Union Carbide and use the resulting $12 billion to pay for medical care, clean up the site, and fund research into the hazards of other Dow products. After two hours of wide coverage, Dow issued a press release denying the statement, stating that they had no employee by that name and he was an impostor, ensuring even greater coverage of the phony news of a cleanup. In Frankfurt, Dow's share price fell 4.24 percent in 23 minutes, wiping $2 billion off its market value. The shares rebounded in Frankfurt after the BBC issued an on-air correction and apology. In New York, Dow Chemical's stock were little changed because of the early trading.[23]
After the original interview was revealed as a hoax, Bichlbaum appeared in a follow-up interview on the United Kingdom's Channel 4 news.[24] During the interview he was asked if he had considered the emotions and reaction of the people of Bhopal when producing the hoax. According to the interviewer, "there were many people in tears" upon having learned of the hoax. Bichlbaum said that, in comparison, what distress he had caused the people was minimal to that for which Dow was responsible. The Yes Men claim on their website that they have been told by contacts in Bhopal that once they had got over their disappointment that it wasn't real, they were pleased about the stunt and thought it had helped to raise awareness of their plight.[25]
At the International Payments Conference on April 28, 2005, 'Dow representative' "Erastus Hamm" unveiled Acceptable Risk, the Acceptable Risk Calculator, and the Acceptable Risk mascot — a life-sized golden skeleton named Gilda — to an audience of about 70 banking professionals.
In February 2012, it was widely reported in the
WTO
One of the Yes Men's most famous pranks is placing a "corrected" WTO website at http://www.gatt.org[27] (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade). The fake site began to receive real emails from confused visitors, including invitations to address various elite groups on behalf of the WTO, to which they responded as if they were the actual WTO.[28][29] At the WTO, the Yes Men gave speeches encouraging corporations to buy votes directly from citizens. They then unveiled a gold spandex body suit that they said would allow productivity to increase, as managers would not have to oversee workers in person but could keep track of them via images on an attached screen as well as implanted sensors.[30]
New Orleans and HUD
The Yes Men appeared on August 28, 2006, at a "Housing Summit" in New Orleans, taking the stage along with New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin and Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco. Before an audience composed mostly of real estate developers, one of the Yes Men gave a speech in which he claimed to be Rene Oswin, a fictitious "assistant under-secretary" at the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). In his speech he claimed that HUD would reopen public housing facilities that had been closed since Hurricane Katrina struck in August 2005. He announced this false claim because HUD had recently decided to only rebuild a third of the subsidized housing stock after Hurricane Katrina, and made plans to demolish four of New Orleans’ ten public housing developments, leaving thousands of New Orleans residents without homes. This decision was contested locally, nationally, and internationally.[31] So, the Yes Men proclaimed that HUD had changed its mind about tearing down the undamaged housing units, and would not tear down the housing projects, as they had planned to do in order to replace them with mixed-income developments.[32]
HUD called this prank, which was intended to bring attention to the lack of affordable housing, a "cruel hoax".[32][33] A former resident of the community was quoted by Bichlbaum as saying, "do whatever's most effective, do it, don't worry about how it affects us," however.[34] HUD spokeswoman Donna White said no one named "Rene Oswin" works for the department. White commented, "I'm like, who the heck is that?"[35]
The fictitious Oswin also announced that the big oil companies would contribute some of their record profits to rebuild the wetlands destroyed by the construction of oil tanker canals to prevent the city from being inundated by future hurricanes.
ExxonMobil
On June 14, 2007, the Yes Men acted during Canada's largest oil conference in Calgary, Alberta, posing as ExxonMobil and National Petroleum Council (NPC) representatives. In front of more than 300 oilmen, the NPC was expected to deliver the long-awaited conclusions of a study commissioned by U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman. The NPC is headed by former ExxonMobil CEO Lee Raymond, who is also the chair of the study.[36] When the Yes Men arrived at the conference they said that Lee Raymond (the promised speaker) was unable to make it due to a pressing situation with the president. The Yes Men then went on to give a presentation in place of Lee Raymond.
In the actual speech, the "NPC rep" announced that current U.S. and Canadian energy policies (notably the massive,
The project, called Vivoleum, would work in perfect synergy with the continued expansion of fossil fuel production. The oilmen listened to the lecture with attention, and then lit "commemorative candles". At this point, event security recognized the Yes Men and forced them off stage, and the 'punchline' — that the candles were made of Vivoleum obtained from the flesh of an "Exxon janitor" who died as a result of cleaning up a toxic spill — was not delivered to the audience, but only to reporters.[38]
New York Times
The Yes Men (along with the Anti-Advertising Agency) also claimed partial responsibility for a prank on November 12, 2008, where approximately 80,000 copies of a fake edition of the July 4, 2009 edition of The New York Times were handed out on the streets of New York and Los Angeles.[39][40] The fake edition shows their ideas for a better future with headlines such as Iraq War Ends and Nation Sets Its Sights on Building Sane Economy. The front page contained a spoofed motto, "All the News We Hope to Print" from the famous phrase "All the news that's fit to print".[41] Articles in the paper announce dozens of new initiatives, including an establishment of national health care, a maximum wage for C.E.O.s and an article wherein George W. Bush accuses himself of treason for his actions during his years as president.[42][43] There is also a Reuters photo of the fake cover page[44][45][46] and a fake website, http://www.nytimes-se.com/.
New York Post and SurvivaBall
On September 21, 2009, one day before a UN summit lead-up to the
On September 22, 2009, the Yes Men demonstrated on the alleged behalf of Halliburton and dozens of other climate threatening corporations an inflatable ball-shaped costume known as the SurvivaBall, claiming it was a self-contained living system for surviving disasters caused by global warming. Over two dozen people wore the SurvivaBall costumes as it was demonstrated in the East River.[49] Police shut down the demonstration for lack of a permit. Co-founder of the Yes Men, Andy Bichlbaum, was arrested on an outstanding parking ticket charge and a handful of other Yes Men were served with summons and tickets for disorderly behavior and creating hazardous conditions.[50][51]
The SurvivaBall was also used in a protest at the steps of the capitol. The protesting balls demanded action be taken on global warming to achieve the 350.org goal. Their strategy was to block the entrance until the government comes to a binding agreement on climate change.[52]
US Chamber of Commerce
On October 19, 2009, the Yes Men spoofed the United States Chamber of Commerce, declaring a U-turn on their climate change policy.[53][54] The Yes Men were not able to complete the conference without being exposed as a hoax, although their message that the United States Chamber of Commerce needs to reevaluate their direction in terms of clean energy was their primary concern and was received. Major TV and news organisations carried this story briefly before the hoax was uncovered. The US Chamber of Commerce two weeks later did change their official policy though, according to Al Gore it was "not because of" the Yes Men's stunt. The Chamber launched a trademark and copyright infringement lawsuit against The Yes Men, who were defended by the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The suit was dropped in June 2013.[55][56]
This action appears in their film, The Yes Men Are Revolting.
Canadian environment minister
During the
Niger Delta Hoax
On March 28, 2010, a video was released on
GE Tax Refund Hoax reported by the AP
On April 13, 2011, a hoax website with a
Shell Oil and ArcticReady.com
In June 2012, the Yes Men collaborated with
The Action Switchboard
The Action Switchboard is a platform the Yes Men launched to link up people who want to be involved in activism events with people organising them. As it says[63] "The Action Switchboard is a platform that helps activists find each other, come up with direct action ideas, and get the resources they need to pull them off."
Edward Snowden Politicon interview
In October 2015, at the annual Politicon non-partisan political convention, the Yes Men promoted an interview with whistleblower Edward Snowden, known to be living in exile in Russia. As they introduced the interview, they announced that Snowden had been pardoned and would join the group in person. As Snowden appeared before them, people cheered, applauded and many rushed the stage for photos. A short time later, another Edward Snowden appeared on the giant screen; however, this time, it was the real Edward Snowden from Russia.[64]
Politicon: new DNC platform
In July 2017, The Yes Men pranked the Democratic Party at Politicon. Following up the "Better Deal" agenda[65] released by the party a week earlier, prankster Andy Bichlbaum posed as Frank Spencer, Deputy Vice Chair for Civic Engagement of the Democratic National Committee (DNC). As part of the new #DNCTakeBack campaign, Spencer pushed a more ambitious and progressive Democratic agenda, including: Medicare for all, tuition-free college, public campaign financing, stronger unions, an end to corporate lobbying and the end of for-profit prisons.[66][67]
VW/Dieselgate apology
In November 2018, Motherboard/Vice released a video about The Yes Men and their fake VW "Emissions Anonymous" project. In the prank, they apologize to the public for the Dieselgate emissions scandal, in which several models and years of VW car family diesel autos were engineered and built with a rigged emissions system that ran clean only while under test conditions, but otherwise released high levels of air pollutants.[68] The Houston Chronicle even covered the pranksters' April 2018 entry in Houston's annual Art Car Parade as if an official VW PR campaign: "The marketing department has even turned the crisis into a publicity shtick".[69]
Fake Washington Post edition
On January 16, 2019, parody editions of The Washington Post were distributed in Washington, D.C. Dated May 1, 2019, the edition's headline read "UNPRESIDENTED" and the lead article described Donald Trump's resignation from the presidency after a period of unrest. The Yes Men took credit for the edition.[70]
COP26
In November 2021, for the United Nations
Footnotes
- ^ a b c Britt, Douglas (April 30, 2010). "The Yes Men infiltrate DiverseWorks". Houston Chronicle. Retrieved August 2, 2010.
- ^ "The Yes Men". The Yes Men. Retrieved August 2, 2010.
- ^ "The Yes Men Fix the World's Andy Bichlbaum on How The Yes Men Got Started". YouTube. September 28, 2009. Archived from the original on December 22, 2021. Retrieved August 2, 2010.
- ^ "The Yes Men." Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno, directors. HBO. 2003.
- ^ "The Yes Men Fix the World." Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno, directors. HBO. 2009.
- Daily News (New York). December 8, 1996. Retrieved May 30, 2012.
- ^ The Yes Men (2003) IMDB.com
- ^ "NOW AVAILABLE ON DVD - THE YES MEN FIX THE WORLD - The new movie that exposes the world of big business and the outrageous pranks that highlight the ways that corporate greed is destroying the planet. Featuring Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno". The Yes Men Fix The World. Archived from the original on July 17, 2011. Retrieved August 2, 2010.
- ^ "Yes Men". Babelgum. Archived from the original on May 17, 2011. Retrieved August 2, 2010.
- ^ "Nuts and bolts". The Yes Men. Retrieved June 11, 2019.
- ^ Neal, Terry M. (November 29, 1999). "Satirical Web Site Poses Political Test". The Washington Post.
- ^ Slater, Wayne (May 22, 1999). "Bush criticizes Web site as malicious". The Dallas Morning News. Archived from the original on September 11, 2012. Retrieved May 30, 2012.
{{cite news}}
: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) - ^ "The Yes Men: Bush". Archived from the original on July 22, 2012.
- ^ "The Yes Men on Ice Age Petition". YouTube. Archived from the original on December 22, 2021.
- ^ Bonanno, Mike; Bichlbaum, Andy; Gonzalez, Juan (July 23, 2009). ""The Yes Men Fix the World": In New Film, Anti-Corporate Pranksters the Yes Men Continue to Jolt Polluters and Profiteers". Democracy Now!. Retrieved December 4, 2010.
ANDY BICHLBAUM: Well, Jude is the patron saint of the impossible, and there's absolutely no way a company like Dow will ever do the right thing in Bhopal, unless we force it. And Finisterra, of course, end of the world, end of the earth. It's just never going to happen.
- ^ "YouTube: Bhopal Disaster - BBC - The Yes Men". BBC World News. Archived from the original on December 22, 2021.
- ^ a b Fortun, K (2001). Advocacy after Bhopal. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p. 259.
- ^ Cassells, J (1996). "Sovereign immunity: Law in an unequal world". Social and Legal Studies. 5 (3): 431–436.
- ^ MacKenzie, D (2002). "Fresh evidence on Bhopal disaster". New Scientist. 19 (1).
- PMID 15310593.
- ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved December 16, 2019.
- ^ "Dow Ethics website".
- ^ "Bhopal hoax sends Dow stock down". CNN.com. December 3, 2004. Retrieved May 30, 2012.
- ^ "Yes Men: The legendary BBC Bhopal Hoax". Babelgum.com. Archived from the original on June 7, 2010. Retrieved August 2, 2010.
- ^ "Frequently Asked Questions". The Yes Men. April 1, 2010. Retrieved August 2, 2010.
- ^ "Stratfor was Dow's Bhopal spy: WikiLeaks". The Times of India. February 28, 2012. Retrieved February 28, 2012.
- ^ "The World Trade Organization". Archived from the original on November 9, 2000. Retrieved August 29, 2006.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) - ^ Connor, Michael (July 5, 2002). "I Am the World Trade Organization ... Or Am I?". The Austin Chronicle.
- ^ Farnsworth, Meghann (March 1, 2005). "Yes Men: Be Careful What You Ask For". Mother Jones.
- ^ English, Simon (October 2, 2004). "Wall Street life: You need a Yes Man". The Telegraph.
- S2CID 142996423.
- ^ a b "Oops: Impostor scams Louisiana officials". CNN. August 28, 2006.
- ^ White, Donna M. (August 28, 2006). "Statement on the Redevelopment of New Orleans Public Housing". US Department of Housing and Urban Development.
- ^ Koppelman, Alex (August 29, 2006). "The HUD Hoax". Salon.
- ^ Rood, Justin (August 28, 2006). "Fake HUD Official Punk'd Louisiana Pols". TPM Muckraker. Retrieved May 30, 2012.
- ^ "What's At Stake? Don't Let Exxon Decide Our Energy future!". The Exxpose Exxon campaign. Archived from the original on November 2, 2006.
- ^ "Exxon Proposes Burning Humanity for Fuel" (Press release). The Yes Men. June 15, 2007.
- ^ Scott, Norvall (June 15, 2007). "Pranksters disrupt oil patch conference". The Globe and Mail. Archived from the original on August 22, 2007.
- ^ Lambert, Steve. "Fillip / Best Case Scenario". Fillip.ca. Retrieved August 2, 2010.
- ^ Dobnik, Verena (November 13, 2008). "'New York Times' spoof circulated". USA Today. Retrieved October 31, 2011.
- ^ Pilkington, Ed (November 12, 2008). "New York Times 'special edition' spoof perplexes readers". The Guardian. Retrieved October 31, 2011.
- ^ "Der Spiegel" (PDF). Retrieved October 31, 2011.
- ^ Spoofed NYT newspaper Archived May 21, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ a b Chan, Sewell (November 12, 2008). "Liberal Pranksters Hand Out Times Spoof". The New York Times. Retrieved October 31, 2011.
- ^ Nolan, Hamilton (November 12, 2008). "Fake New York Times Declares Iraq War Over! Here's Who Did It". Gawker. Retrieved October 31, 2011.
- ^ "Pranksters print spoof NY Times". BBC News. November 12, 2008. Retrieved October 31, 2011.
- ^ "SPECIAL EDITION" NEW YORK POST by the Yes Men
- ^ http://nypost-se.com/ "WE'RE SCREWED" climate change special edition New York Post online edition September 21, 2009
- ^ "Balls Across America". Babelgum.com. Archived from the original on August 11, 2010. Retrieved August 2, 2010.
- ^ Millman, Jennifer (September 24, 2009). "Cops Arrest "Yes Men" Co-Founder in Latest Prank". NBC. Retrieved April 18, 2011.
- ^ Noor, Jaisal (September 22, 2009). "The Yes Men's Andy Bichlbaum Arrested at 'SurvivaBall' Demo". The Indypendent. Retrieved April 18, 2011.
- ^ Survivaball Archived 2013-03-24 at the Wayback Machine from TheYesMen.org, retrieved 12 May 2015
- ^ Goldenberg, Suzanne (October 19, 2009). "US Chamber of Commerce falls victim to 'fraud' over climate hoax". The Guardian. London. Retrieved October 20, 2009.
- ^ "Will the real chamber of Commerce please stand up?". YouTube. October 19, 2009. Archived from the original on December 22, 2021. Retrieved October 31, 2011.
- ^ Upton, John (June 14, 2013). "Yes Men prank the Chamber of Commerce — and get away with it". Grist.
- ^ Davis, Wendy (June 14, 2013). "Chamber Of Commerce Drops Lawsuit Against Parodists". Online Media Daily.
- ^ Goldenberg, Suzanne (December 14, 2009). "Copenhagen spoof shames Canada on the truth about its emissions". The Guardian. London. Retrieved December 14, 2009.
- ^ "Yes Men: Canada Takes Stand on Climate Change. NOT!". Babelgum. Archived from the original on August 11, 2010. Retrieved August 2, 2010.
- ^ Shell: We are sorry. YouTube. March 28, 2010.
- ^ Goldmark, Alex (April 13, 2011). "AP Falls for Hoax that GE Will Donate $3 Billion Tax Refund". Good.is. Retrieved April 18, 2011.
- ^ "Greenpeace, the Yes Men and the inside story of #ShellFail".
- ^ "Shell not involved in spoof video and fake advertisements". Archived from the original on July 29, 2012.
- ^ "About the Action Switchboard". Action Switchboard.
- ^ Weigel, Dave (October 12, 2015). "Inside the 'ComicCon for Politics'". Washington Post. Retrieved December 3, 2018.
- ^ Weigant, Chris (July 25, 2017). "Democrats Offer Up 'A Better Deal'". Huffington Post. Retrieved December 3, 2018.
- ^ "Yes Men blend laughs, progressive activism". HoustonChronicle.com. September 13, 2017. Retrieved December 3, 2018.
- ^ "Activists Call DNC's Bluff With #DNCTAKEBACK". Common Dreams. Retrieved December 3, 2018.
- ^ Motherboard (November 19, 2018), Faking Volkswagen's Dieselgate Apology with the Yes Men, archived from the original on December 22, 2021, retrieved November 29, 2018
- ^ "Response to VW diesel emissions scandal will define former CEO". HoustonChronicle.com. May 7, 2018. Retrieved November 29, 2018.
- ^ Crosbie, Jack (January 17, 2019). "This Fake Washington Post Campaign is Truly Breathtaking". Splinter.
- ^ "Hilarious COP26 prank highlights the absurd level of corporate capture at the conference". The Canary. November 9, 2021. Retrieved November 10, 2021.
- ^ "Press Release (feat retraction): Official UN net zero by 2050 initiatives pranked by The Yes Men". Glasgow Calls Out Polluters. Retrieved November 10, 2021.
Further reading
- Perini, Julie (2010). "Art as Intervention: A Guide to Today's Radical Art Practices". In Team Colors Collective (ed.). Uses of a Whirlwind: Movement, Movements, and Contemporary Radical Currents in the United States. AK Press. ISBN 9781849350167.
External links
- Official website
- The Yes Men Fix the World - Peer to Peer Edition Free video download at Internet archive
- The official Yes Men video channel on Babelgum
- Book website
- IMDB - Info Wars
- The Yes Men and Activism in the Information Age(pdf) Archived 2008-03-08 at the Wayback Machine
- interview on Bill Moyers Journal, 20 July 2007
- Interview with Andy Bichlbaum from Democracy Now! program, May 12, 2006
- Spoof WTO/GATT website
- The Yes Men Fix the World: In New Film - video report by Democracy Now!
- Shell: We are sorry