The Yes Men: fighting to save greedy executives, from themselves
If we can't count on the government to keep us safe from the the Madoffs, coal ash spills that swallow up entire houses, arsenic in our tap water, or E. coli in our hamburger meat, then it's nice to have American D.I.Y.-ness to hold big business accountable.
Meet The Yes Men, two wacky guys who pose as regular corporate executives and say in public the things they wish corporations would. They do this by setting up websites cloned to look like the multinational corporations they want to prank, then wait to get invited to big industry conferences. When the invitations roll in, and they do, it's gloves off.
Their recent acts of hilarity include posing as Exxon Mobil execs and giving a morbid keynote speech on climate change to 300 oilmen at Canada's largest fuel conference. They also stopped by the Wharton School of Business as representatives of the World Trade Organization to tout new exploitation strategies for Africa.
"You learn the difference between right and wrong when you're very young, and somehow most of us forget it when we go out to work. Because we've set up a system where corporations are rewarded for bad behavior as long as they're making a profit," says Mike Bonanno, one half of the key duo of The Yes Men's operation.
Now their exploits have been captured in a movie, "The Yes Men Fix the World," which shows their activist sword-wielding. It is now hitting the road--you can look for a screening near you here.
"For all of us, what we try to do is just remember what the difference between right and wrong really is, and hold corporations accountable to that," says Bonanno.
"We happen to have a very, very great degree of freedom for corporations [in this country], which erodes everyone else's freedom," says Andy Bichlbaum, his partner in conference crashing. "Other places have carbon taxes, for example, taxes on emissions. It's one of the reasons gas costs three times as much in Europe as it does here. Nobody complains about that because they understand it's for the public good. We can do the same thing here. We can have those kinds of common-sense solutions to huge problems."
After the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (H.U.D.) controversially cooperated with private developers in tearing down public housing in high-need areas hit by Hurricane Katrina, The Yes Men posed as H.U.D. reps and, following the governor and mayor Ray Nagin onto the podium at a public function, publicly promised that the organization intended to reverse these actions.
When the United Nations held a special summit on climate change, The Yes Men produced authentic-looking versions of the New York Post exposing the impending dangers of global warming. In another print prank, their re-creation of The New York Times last November declared the Iraq War over.
During "The Yes Men Fix the World" opening in New York this past week, the two encouraged the crowd to take part in an impromptu raid on a Whole Foods in Manhattan to protest C.E.O. John Mackey's anti-health care reform pontificating. They also introduced SurvivalBalls, human-size-cantaloupe-looking suits that C.E.O.s of polluting companies can live in after they've successfully rendered our planet inhabitable. (For a look at SurvivalBalls, check out the video interview above.)
In the film, they focus on Bhopal, India, site of the worst industrial disaster in history. A gas leak in a Union Carbide plant in 1984 killed 10,000 people with 555,000 more suffering serious health problems, including cancer and kidney failure. Warren Anderson, Union Carbide's C.E.O., knew that the plant was vulnerable and took precautions at a similar plant in the U.S. while declining to take the same steps at the plant in India. Anderson arrived in Bhopal immediately after the accident and was quickly arrested for manslaughter. Posting bail, Anderson fled on a private jet and has since lived out his life in the Hamptons and Florida.
The Yes Men seek to live in a sensible world and view their pranks as calls to action. If we can't look to our government to hold executives responsible for lives taken in the name of profit, then the best hope we have are The Yes Men.
UPDATE: The Yes Men fooled CNBC, FOX and other networks, again, today by putting on a press conference at the National Press Club as representatives of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and claiming to support the job-creating, planet-saving Kerry-Boxer bill, which the Chamber of Commerce is against:
Meet The Yes Men, two wacky guys who pose as regular corporate executives and say in public the things they wish corporations would. They do this by setting up websites cloned to look like the multinational corporations they want to prank, then wait to get invited to big industry conferences. When the invitations roll in, and they do, it's gloves off.
Their recent acts of hilarity include posing as Exxon Mobil execs and giving a morbid keynote speech on climate change to 300 oilmen at Canada's largest fuel conference. They also stopped by the Wharton School of Business as representatives of the World Trade Organization to tout new exploitation strategies for Africa.
"You learn the difference between right and wrong when you're very young, and somehow most of us forget it when we go out to work. Because we've set up a system where corporations are rewarded for bad behavior as long as they're making a profit," says Mike Bonanno, one half of the key duo of The Yes Men's operation.
Now their exploits have been captured in a movie, "The Yes Men Fix the World," which shows their activist sword-wielding. It is now hitting the road--you can look for a screening near you here.
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"For all of us, what we try to do is just remember what the difference between right and wrong really is, and hold corporations accountable to that," says Bonanno.
"We happen to have a very, very great degree of freedom for corporations [in this country], which erodes everyone else's freedom," says Andy Bichlbaum, his partner in conference crashing. "Other places have carbon taxes, for example, taxes on emissions. It's one of the reasons gas costs three times as much in Europe as it does here. Nobody complains about that because they understand it's for the public good. We can do the same thing here. We can have those kinds of common-sense solutions to huge problems."
After the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (H.U.D.) controversially cooperated with private developers in tearing down public housing in high-need areas hit by Hurricane Katrina, The Yes Men posed as H.U.D. reps and, following the governor and mayor Ray Nagin onto the podium at a public function, publicly promised that the organization intended to reverse these actions.
When the United Nations held a special summit on climate change, The Yes Men produced authentic-looking versions of the New York Post exposing the impending dangers of global warming. In another print prank, their re-creation of The New York Times last November declared the Iraq War over.
During "The Yes Men Fix the World" opening in New York this past week, the two encouraged the crowd to take part in an impromptu raid on a Whole Foods in Manhattan to protest C.E.O. John Mackey's anti-health care reform pontificating. They also introduced SurvivalBalls, human-size-cantaloupe-looking suits that C.E.O.s of polluting companies can live in after they've successfully rendered our planet inhabitable. (For a look at SurvivalBalls, check out the video interview above.)
In the film, they focus on Bhopal, India, site of the worst industrial disaster in history. A gas leak in a Union Carbide plant in 1984 killed 10,000 people with 555,000 more suffering serious health problems, including cancer and kidney failure. Warren Anderson, Union Carbide's C.E.O., knew that the plant was vulnerable and took precautions at a similar plant in the U.S. while declining to take the same steps at the plant in India. Anderson arrived in Bhopal immediately after the accident and was quickly arrested for manslaughter. Posting bail, Anderson fled on a private jet and has since lived out his life in the Hamptons and Florida.
The Yes Men seek to live in a sensible world and view their pranks as calls to action. If we can't look to our government to hold executives responsible for lives taken in the name of profit, then the best hope we have are The Yes Men.
UPDATE: The Yes Men fooled CNBC, FOX and other networks, again, today by putting on a press conference at the National Press Club as representatives of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and claiming to support the job-creating, planet-saving Kerry-Boxer bill, which the Chamber of Commerce is against:
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
10-16-2009 @ 2:32PM
brian said...
These buffoons are Michael Moore wannabees. Carbon Tax? Come on! Go live in Cuba where you belong. Make sure Fidel knows you are coming-He loves hanging out with Communists like these jerks. I also bet these jerks are trust-fund baby brats like the rest of the loony-tune environmentalists. These buffoons do not deserve to live in the United States. I have a suggestion for you buffoons--If you do not like the United States get on a plane and leave!! A plane leaves every hour out of the U.S., get on one and dont come back. WE Capitalists will not miss you!! Oh yes, take Michael Moore, Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, the Obamas, and the environmental nuts with you. We do not need parasites like them either.
Reply
10-17-2009 @ 1:18AM
Kevin said...
Do you really think you have any more right to live in this country than they do?? In this country, EVERYONE has a right to say what they want, our FOUNDING FATHERS wanted it that way. So why don't YOU leave to Cuba if you want to live in a fascist state where everyone has to have one opinion??! Listen to what you are saying man, Jesus H!
10-17-2009 @ 3:02AM
Ben said...
You sound like a very stupid person Brian. I hope you aren't in charge of any human lives or important decisions.
10-17-2009 @ 1:37PM
Joe said...
@brian...
You represent the piece of shit assholes that feed into the "mass idiotism" that plagues America. Rather than posting ignorant comments why don't you and any of your friends like you re-enroll in elementary school. Just start all over. Cause your idiots.
10-23-2009 @ 5:41PM
Jordan White said...
@brian
I had no idea George W. Bush was on Wallet Pop, never mind that he knew what the internet was in the first place...
Funny you should pick the name Brian, what significance does that mean to you Mr. Bush?
10-16-2009 @ 3:27PM
Dorna said...
Sooooo, you think the Bhopal disaster don't need fixing?
Reply
10-17-2009 @ 1:22AM
JoshTU said...
I'm not sure why they are going after Dow chemical. The company union carbide has paid out close to half a billion dollars in fixing it up. I think Dow chemcial purchased the company after the event.
Reply
10-17-2009 @ 7:05AM
yurigoul said...
Less than 500 million dollars for more than 500.000 people who have serious health problems is less than 1.000 per person...
10-17-2009 @ 4:22AM
Smack said...
The yes men are crazy.
I love their aesthetic view and take on the world. They are gonna WAAAY big.
Keep it up guys. spark the right ideas for people the to see reality for what it is: REAL
Reply
10-18-2009 @ 9:33AM
NYTReviewOfBooks said...
People have been missing out on one of the classic comedy writers. Charley Marks was a London correspondent for the New York Tribune. Like talk radio mavens, he had an adept line of chatter that comes across like a pedantic junior college economics prof. He mixed this with advice for MBAs that has unvarnished Machiavellian appeal even today. The consultants, private capital guys, and bankers for companies like Simmons Beuatyrest and Harry & David are pale imitations of Charley's wit. It'd be tasteless, of course, to just say these things without humor, and Marks does not disappoint us. He brutally satirizes Limbaughian crankiness by pretending to take a left wing position in contrast to Limbaugh's extremes on the right. Pick up a copy of his book "On Capital." You may need to search carefully, since we find it available mostly in its German translation...
Reply
10-18-2009 @ 3:30PM
andy said...
A great story and hopefully the efforts of these guys will lower the executive excess that permeates Wall street nowadays.
Andy
www.savingtoinvest.com
Reply
10-19-2009 @ 4:06PM
USAvet said...
Send these two to Afghanistan to find Osama !!!
Reply
10-19-2009 @ 7:51PM
SEAN said...
YA!, GO HUNT OSAMA! LORD KNOW BUSH COULDN'T! OR SHOULD I SAY DIDNT WANT TO! AND O'L BRIAN UP THERE SEAMS TO HAVE A BIT OF HOSTILITY! IT SURE IS EASY TO FIND REDNECKS. ONES WHO DON'T UNDERSTAND THE RIGHTS OF THIS COUNTRY. NOTHINGS PERFECT! NOT EVEN YOU DUDE!. SO WHEN SOMEONE IS JUST TRYING TO POINT OUT SOMETHING TRY NOT TO GO TOO RED. " IF YEW DONT LIKE THIS COUNTRY YEW CAN JEEEST GEEDOUT!" THAT LINE IS USED A LITTLE TO OFTEN.
Reply
10-20-2009 @ 12:56AM
exercisebrain said...
LOL, these guys are great. Those bloated pigs deserve to get made fun of.
Reply
10-27-2009 @ 11:36AM
seeandknowall said...
Hey you two dorks. I own a large corporation and I depend upon being able to screw the American Sheeple while I send their jobs overseas. If you two Heckle and Jeckle morons don't knock it off, I'm gonna send some of these wanna be Americans over to all your press events and make them heckle and harass you while you fight for their rights and well being, American Sheeple are meant to be my slaves and are too dumb to think for themselves.
- signed, Mr. Big
Corporate America.
Reply
10-20-2009 @ 4:05AM
peter said...
those dudes are funny as hell they are doin something there putting up an interesting new kind of fight its a kool idea there might be a bit of legal remafication though I think what they are doing might qualify as slander or what not something like that they might want to fully check the law books before they manage to piss off some one they are representing out there Id hate to see them git locked up for that stuff even if I dont completely agree with all of their views oh and brian up their dont let idiots try to tell you that yer opinion aint right those hippykrits dont fully understand the words they use they need to go back to english class and read some legit books not that Dr. Sues stuff
before you hippykrits try attacking me for my ucky spelling shut up I does it on purpose I also make run on sentencis and I does it to piss y'all off
Reply
10-20-2009 @ 8:12AM
chill said...
i don't do this often but that guy brian at the top is a f*** fool...
you really make middle america look racist and extremely stupid....
oh and i just assume your from middle america because i've never heard that type of talk outside of middle america....
Reply