Week Twelve: The Yes Men
Our final group reading was to go and look at The Yes Men website and Wikipedia page.
The Yes Men are a group of activists who “agree” their way to the top. They use culture jamming to conduct high-profile hijinks to “provide a public glimpse at the behind-the-scenes world of business” (‘Latest Hijinks’ on The Yes Men n.d.).
By creating elaborate hoax sites that mimic the real websites of the companies they wish to target, they are able to accept invitations sent to them to appear on television shows and at conferences as “representatives” of these companies. They describe this process as “identity correction” (‘Frequently Asked Questions’ on The Yes Men n.d.). Their proceeding satirical statements as these representatives are often degrading to workers, generally shocking or dream senarios that many would like the companies to take on.
Their first prank was conducted in 2000 and was an attack at George W. Bush’s presidential campaign. They established the site www.gwbush.com to help draw attention to discrepancies on the actual Bush presidential site. Angering Bush so much that when asked about it he commented “there ought to be limits to freedom” (‘The Yes Men’ 2008).
In 2003 a film was made with the same title, outlining some of the hijinks that The Yes Men conduct. The film “follows a couple of anti-corporate activist-pranksters as they impersonate World Trade Organization spokesmen on TV and at business conferences around the world” (‘Movie’ on The Yes Men n.d.).
There is also a full colour scrapbook published about them titled The Yes Men: The True Story of the End of the World Trade Organization. It “follows the Yes Men’s attempts to get experts to notice that they aren’t WTO representatives” (‘Book’ on The Yes Men n.d.).
The Yes Men have impersonated people from the World Trade Organization, McDonald’s, Dow Chemical, BP, Captian Euro, Cato Institute, ExxonMobil, HUD, WTO and the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. They see themselves as working for the good of the public and say that ”a person (male or female) becomes a Yes Man by exposing, perhaps deviously, the nastiness of powerful evildoers” (Frequently Asked Questions on The Yes Men n.d.).
References:
The Yes Men n.d., http://theyesmen.org, viewed November 6th 2008.
‘The Yes Men’ 2008, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Yes_Men, viewed November 6th 2008.
