THE YES MEN

From Wikipedia:

The Yes Men are a group of culture jamming activists who practice what they call "identity correction". They pretend to be powerful people and spokespersons for prominent organizations, accepting invitations received on their websites to appear at symposiums and TV shows. They use their newfound authority to express the idea that corporations and governmental organizations often act in dehumanizing ways toward the public. Elaborate props are sometimes part of the ruse.

Their method is often satire: posing as corporate or government spokespeople, they might make shocking denigrating comments about workers and consumers, only to discover that instead of shock or anger, their prank is received enthusiastically, with no one realizing the reactionary rhetoric was only a joke. Sometimes, the Yes Men's phony spokesperson makes annoucements that represent dream scenarios for the anti-globalization movement or opponents of corporate crime. The result is false news reports of the demise of the WTO, or Dow paying for a Union Carbide cleanup.

The Yes Men have posed as spokespeople for The World Trade Organization, McDonald's, Dow Chemical, and the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. The two leading members of The Yes Men are known by a number of aliases, most recently, and in film, Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno.

Their experiences were documented in the film The Yes Men, distributed by United Artists, as well as the book The Yes Men: The True Story of the End of the World Trade Organization.

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I mentioned the Yes Men yesterday as being potential harbingers of a new wave of relevant theater. In a weird fit of synchronicity, I today bumped into a full documentary about their work. I think I may very well be right about them and theater. The documentary shows them pulling off some amazing stunts by convincing several different groups, including CNBC, that they are representatives of the World Trade Organization. And once they've done the convincing, their real work begins: bogus announcements for bogus events and bogus initiatives, such as a plan to recycle human feces into edible food for the third world, that make utterly clear how contemptible and inhuman the WTO really is. That is, everytime the Yes Men make the news, corporations and the WTO, pretty much anybody they've targeted, have to issue a denial, which forces the corporate media to actually address issues they usually ignore.

It's brilliant stuff. Go watch the video.

Here's a link to their site.

Here and here are links to Democracy Now coverage of Yes Men performances not covered in the documentary.

One of their members, their video animator, lives here in Baton Rouge. Maybe I can hook up with them somehow. It strikes me that they could use a well trained actor...


A Yes Man posing as a WTO rep shows off to textile industry wonks a fake management suit, complete with a phallus that allows a manager to moniter his workers on a small video screen

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