The Yes Men Fix the World
Two culture-jamming activists concentrate on exposing greed and hypocrisy in big business by making false announcements on behalf of companies they feel deserve it.

Heard of the Bhopal disaster in 1984? No? Well it was the biggest industrial disaster in history, exposing 500,000 people to toxic gases, and causing tens of thousands of deaths. Union Carbide (now part of Dow Chemical), who owned the unsafe chemical factory that exploded,  paid off the relatives and survivors with around a thousand dollars each, and never cleared up the chemical contamination that continues to cause deaths and birth defects even now. So when Jude Finisterra, a spokesman for Dow Chemical, appeared on BBC Worldwide in 2004 admitting full responsibility and announcing that they would be clearing up the mess and properly compensating all the victims, there was rejoicing from everybody except the Dow shareholders, and the stock of Dow Chemical plummeted by $2 billion in less than half an hour. The only problem was that Dow had never heard of Jude Finisterra, had no intention of admitting responsibility, and were as surprised by the announcement as anyone else.

The announcement was a hoax by the Yes Men (Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno), two culture-jamming activists, who concentrate on exposing greed and hypocrisy in big business by making false announcements on behalf of companies they feel deserve it. By dressing in cheap, boring suits and slicking back their hair they become indistinguishable from any number of corporate spokesman drones, and by setting up fake websites and making phone calls, they can get themselves invited to conferences where they make hoax announcements on behalf of companies they dislike.

The film serves as mainly as a documentary on the evils of greed, and profit at any cost; something that seems highly topical with the collapse of the economy, with segments in of the film focusing on particularly egregious examples of this ideology (Bhopal, the rebuilding of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina to benefit investors, etc.) and the Yes Men’s attempts to attack the institutions responsible with their hoaxes, and make people aware of what these companies are getting up to without proper supervision. Paradoxically, the film is at its best when the real spokespeople for these institutions are allowed to speak for themselves. Various talking heads from Washington think-tanks appear to explain how the government must allow the market to do whatever it wants or there will be dire effects on the economy. Presumably filmed over a year ago, this all looks particularly naive in the face of the recent economic collapse. A meet and greet session after a conference when the Yes Men are complimented by various businessmen for the announcement of a computer program that literally puts a value on human life will leave you as sick to the stomach as if you had just drunk a glass of Bhopal pump water.

The film’s main failing is that not all of the hoaxes are particularly funny, mainly because they don’t push far enough. A new source of sustainable fuel presented to a group of energy corporations is a hilarious highlight, but other hoaxes where the Yes Men simply announce a compassionate change of direction for the company they claim to be representing are less so: the audience of company men in suits generally just sit there listening, rather than reacting in surprise or shock. The Yes Men even admit this themselves towards the end of the film – remarking that some of their hoaxes weren’t getting the reaction they hoped. Certainly the corporations who were the targets of the hoaxes remain unrepentant. Dow Chemical’s stock price returned to its original value after two hours when the hoax became apparent.

In the end though, this film has an audience already built in, and you should know already if you’re going to be sympathetic toward the Yes Men’s aims. If you liked any of Michael Moore’s films, or are a fan of Mark Thomas, you will probably like this film. If you’re sympathetic towards the profit margins of global conglomerates, or are a fan of the works of Ayn Rand – probably not.