Let me first say that I don't work for these guys, although I am a fan. The Yes Men are anti-corporate activists who have been raking the ruling class over the coals for at least 10 years. I remember that their fake New York Times prank got written about on Daily Kos when it happened, and I seem to recall that people liked it. Now they have a movie out.
I was kind of surprised that the dKos audience
that loved Michael Moore's "Capitalism" (and rightly so) doesn't seem
to know about this film. I wrote to the filmmakers and told them they
should join this community, which seems like a good fit. Maybe we'll
see them in here soon.
Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno are two guys who just can't take "no" for an answer.
They have an unusual hobby: posing as top executives of corporations they hate. Armed with nothing but thrift-store suits, the Yes Men
lie their way into business conferences and parody their corporate
targets in ever more extreme ways - basically doing everything that
they can to wake up their audiences to the danger of letting greed run
our world.
One day Andy, purporting to be a Dow Chemical spokesperson, gets on
the biggest TV news program in the world and announces that Dow will
finally clean up the site of the largest industrial accident in
history, the Bhopal catastrophe. The result: as people worldwide
celebrate, Dow's stock value loses two billion dollars. People want Dow
to do the right thing, but the market decides that it can't....
What I love about these guys is that they're genuinely funny but
also genuinely biting. You almost feel sorry for the fat cats they take
on. (Not quite, though.) You see their pranks kicking the corporatist world in the balls, and, much like watching an enemy get kicked in the balls in real life, it's hilarious and deeply gratifying.
Here's a description of a typical Yes Men prank. The person conference attendees believe to be WTO representative Hanniford Schmidt is in fact Yes Man Andy Bichlbaum:
Philadelphia - At a Wharton Business School conference on
business in Africa, World Trade Organization representative Hanniford
Schmidt announced the creation of a WTO initiative for "full private
stewardry of labor" for the parts of Africa that have been hardest hit
by the 500 years of Africa's free trade with the West....
"Full, untrammelled stewardry is the best available solution to
African poverty, and the inevitable result of free-market theory,"
Schmidt told more than 150 attendees. Schmidt acknowledged that the
stewardry program was similar in many ways to slavery, but explained
that just as "compassionate conservatism" has polished the rough edges
on labor relations in industrialized countries, full stewardry, or
"compassionate slavery," could be a similar boon to developing ones....
One conference attendee asked what incentive employers had to remain
as stewards once their employees are too old to work or reproduce.
Schmidt responded that a large new biotech market would answer that
worry. He then reminded the audience that this was the only possible
solution under free-market theory.
There were no other questions from the audience that took issue with Schmidt's proposal.
Pretty damning that all these globalization types just sat there,
listening and nodding-- the only objection was basically that slavery
might still be a little too generous.
So that's my little spiel about what the Yes Men are about. I
haven't seen the movie, because it hasn't come to my town, and it may
not have come to yours either: As far as I can tell, they have
basically no budget for promotions or advertising. This movie needs our
help to find the audience it deserves. (Hmm, where have I said that
before? Once a Rescue Ranger, always a Rescue Ranger!)
I know that the world is full of folks who want to treat the Daily
Kos as a free ATM for any effort that can be cloaked in a progressive
mantle. But the Yes Men aren't a bunch of entertainment-industry types
who've decided to try being political. They’re longtime activists
who've been bringing sass and attention
to the fight against injustice for 10 years, and now they've made a
movie. I'm pretty sure they're not in this to get their star on
Hollywood Boulevard.
I know they need help, because I'm on their mailing list.
I'm not trying to be a jerk or a big pimp, but I would really encourage
you to take a look at what the Yes Men are doing, and if it's something
you support, then do whatever you feel inspired to do to help. I'm also
going to do something I've never done, which is ask you to recommend this diary, at least for long enough so that folks in this community can learn about this film and make up their own minds.
Here's their pitch, from an email I got:
A labor of love to produce, and distributed in a unique partnership
with Shadow Distribution (The Lost Boys of Sudan, The Weather
Underground), The Yes Men Fix the World
hits corporate America where it hurts, and has huge potential as a
public education piece and a powerful rallying cry for progressive
activists and organizers. Unfortunately after a hugely successful
opening weekend in New York, and inquiries from new theaters across the
country, the film's marketing and outreach budget (never much to begin
with) is almost completely tapped out! There is no budget for the 10-15
new film prints ($1200 each) that theaters want, nor for the basic
advertising (another $15,000 at least) to make the film work in each
major market, and in smaller cities too.
The Yes Men need your help to get the film out to cities and towns
large and small across the land, where the hope is to reproduce the
kind of raucous, people-powered reactions that have been typical of
screenings in New York. Here's how you can do that:
One: You can loan money to their distribution and audience
engagement effort, to be paid back when proceeds from the retail DVD
start rolling in next year. To take this route, please email invest@theyesmen.org.
Two: They're putting Survivaballs
up for adoption. For just $1,000, you will become the proud parent of
the world's stupidest costume. The Survivaball you own will be deployed
in direct-action protest all across America, and then in December will
go to Copenhagen to push world leaders to do something smart about
climate change. To adopt your own active ball, please email adoptaball@theyesmen.org.
Three: You can buy a film print ($1200) and loan it until the theatrical run is finished. To help out this way, please write invest@theyesmen.org.
AND you can also just donate money, or buy posters, t-shirts, Reggie candles, etc. here.
All too often, activism is seen as tedious at best, if not downright
boring. I've written elsewhere about the ongoing challenge of getting
intelligent-but-cynical young people excited about political action,
and I think media-jamming projects like the Yes Men
help. Even the cynical (especially the cynical?) love to see hypocrisy
get its come-uppance. I think it would be a goddamned shame if this
film, which according to all accounts is brilliant, never finds a
substantial audience. Now is the time to show the Obama generation that
activism can be cool, fun, and effective.
Plus, as progressives, we deserve a few laughs every once in a
while. Real laughs, not those hollow, mirthless ones we've been
practicing for the last 8 years.
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