Yes Men Strike Oil
Activist trickster collective the Yes Men
used the Gas and Oil Exposition 2007 in Calgary, Alberta to stage their
latest theatre of corporate absurdity, with Exxon/Mobil and the Natural
Petroleum Council playing the fools.
The prank, intended as a critique of the fossil fuel industry's influence on energy policy, caused confusion and consternation on the final day of the Exposition, one of the industry's largest gatherings.
The NPC, which is led by former Exxon-Mobil CEO Lee Raymond, advises the White House on gas and oil issues. They were expected to announce the findings of a Raymond-chaired study, commissioned by the Department of Energy, on joint US-Canadian energy policy.
Instead, attendees of the day's $45.00 keynote luncheon were addressed by the Yes Men's Andy Bichlbaum, who identified himself as an NPC representative named Shepard Wolff.
After noting that current energy policies will likely lead to "huge global calamities" and disrupt oil supplies, Wolff told the audience "that in the worst case scenario, the oil industry could "keep fuel flowing" by transforming the billions of people who die into oil," said a Yes Men press release.
Yes Man Mike Bonnano, posing as an Exxon representative named Florian Osenberg, added that "With more fossil fuels comes a greater chance of disaster, but that means more feedstock for Vivoleum. Fuel will continue to flow for those of us left."
The impostors led growingly suspicious attendees in lighting Vivoleum candles made, they said, from a former Exxon janitor who died from cleaning a toxic spill. When shown a mock video of the janitor professing his desire to be turned in death into candles, a conference organizer pulled Bonanno and Bichlbaum from the stage.
As security guards led Bonanno from the room, Bichlbaum told reporters that "Without oil we could no longer produce or transport food, and most of humanity would starve. That would be a tragedy, but at least all those bodies could be turned into fuel for the rest of us."
Noting that "150,000 people already die from climate-change related effects every year," he added, "That's only going to go up - maybe way, way up. Will it all go to waste? That would be cruel."
The Exposition's organizers later issued a press release verifying that "the "environmental and corporate ethics activists" were not representatives of their respected organizations. According to Calgary's CTV news, the organizers "were approached by what they thought was a reputable company offering speakers from the Petroleum Council." Only after the debacle did they contact the Council and learn of their mistake.
Members of the Yes Men have previously posed as spokespeople for McDonald's, the World Trade Organization, Dow Chemical and the US Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Oil executives duped by impostors [CTV]
Exxon Proposes Burning Humanity for Fuel [press release]
Transcripts and video
Image: CTV
Where the hell can I see the video?
Brilliance, sheer brilliance, both in idea and execution. The only way they could improve on this would be if they'd done a symposium on Humor in the Energy Industry and then played back the tapes of the Enron employees joking about grandmas dying because they can't afford to run the A/C.
Watch and learn, progressives. Forget the twenty-foot-high puppets and guys whose necks haven't seen a tie in forty years, much less an Armani suit. To infiltrate and get the message across, one needs to adopt appropriate camouflage -- AND to have the self-discipline needed to stay in character for considerable periods of time.
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So basically they confirmed their status as fringe wackos. They could have used the time to inform the audience with objective analysis of the worlds/US energy issues and not even get escorted off. They could have made change instead of making change harder.
no, concerned, you've missed the point entirely.
the chances of anyone convincing the oil industry that the oil industry is destructive are nil, no matter how "reasonable" or "objective" you try to be. It's simply against the interests of the industry to reduce their production. do you think all of the people in that room are simply unaware of the facts? that if someone showed them scientific evidence they would al slap their foreheads and go "of course, we should dismantle our rigs and reduce our salaries immediately!" If so you are living in a dream world.
The Yes Men cause public debate and call attention to the issues by framing them in basically the same terms as the industry (a pure cost-benefit analysis), as well as possibly stirring some tiny spark of conscience in anyone attending who found themselves going along with it up to a point and then has to ask themselves why.
There's no reasoning with petroleum executives when the facts say that they need to stop producing petroleum. The answer lies elsewhere, the people to convince with objective facts are in government and the general public. The oil execs should be held up to general ridicule if not censure, exactly as the Yes Men are doing.
EDITOR: Adam Rogers | 
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