This wasn't the first time that Dow Chemicals was had by the notorious, well-meaning 'The Yes Men'.

Exactly two years before Friday's hoax, December 3, 2002 saw an email press release sent out by Dow-Chemical.com, explaining why, despite legal investigations consistently pinpointing Union Carbide Corporation (UCC) as the culprit, Dow and UCC had always refused responsibility for the Bhopal disaster.

The release received shocked responses before a legal notice shut them down two days later, along with all the other websites on the ISP that hosted them.

The release said Dow could not acknowledge responsibility because, "if we did, not only would we be required to expend many billions of dollars on cleanup and compensation — much worse, the public could then point to Dow as a precedent in other big cases.
"They took responsibility; why can't you?' Amoco, BP, Shell, and Exxon all have ongoing problems that would just get much worse. We are unable to set this precedent for ourselves and the industry, much as we would like to see the issue resolved in a humane and satisfying way."

'The Yes Men' claim they are in the business of identity correction. They see themselves as a group of honest people who impersonate their idea of big-time criminals — leaders and big corporations who put profits in front of everything else — in order to publicly humiliate them. All for public good.