The Yes Men by Andy Bichlbaum
This is the companion book to the 2004 United Artists film The Yes Men. It follows two anti-corporate activists as they pose as the World Trade Organization on television and at business gatherings all across the world.
In the first scene, Andy and Mike create a website that closely resembles the World Trade Organization. Some users send email invitations intended for the actual WTO because they are unaware that the website is a scam. When Mike and Andy go along with the pretence, they quickly find themselves representing the WTO at significant events.
Andy and Mike adopt thrift-store suits and aim to shock their unaware listeners with darkly humorous satires on global free trade. They are happy to speak as the organization they detest. Strangely, the experts don’t get the joke and seem to support any awful notion the two can think up. Tired of their futile attempts to shock, Mike and Andy decide to try something radically different for one more lesson. The book is gorgeously illustrated in full colour throughout with images of Mike and Andy assuming their assumed personas in ever-deeper ways. Many of the funny e-mail conversations between the Yes Men and other politicians and people from around the world who have sought their assistance on global trade concerns are also widely distributed.
The Yes Men by Andy Bichlbaum
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Wanna change the world? Why not assume the leaders’ identities, enter their company, reveal their true colours, and then bring down the organization from within? If you’re going to do something, do it funny, as these men did. This fantastic book alters one’s perception of what a select few individuals are truly capable of accomplishing in the world. These guys made the world a better place while having fun. They are the kind of freedom fighters we need more of. I wholeheartedly advise reading this book, lending it to your friends, and beginning to think creatively.
Although the effects of The Yes Men’s pranks are entertaining and have a serious message, they are clearly juvenile.
They play practical jokes on businesses in a way that compels them to respond to the joke. A good example is when they claimed in a press release from a year ago that General Electric will return billions of dollars in tax returns to the government because the company is extremely profitable and didn’t require a large tax refund. The Associated Press’s headline, “General Electric will return tax rebate,” led the media to believe it was true, forcing GE to issue the following statement: “Hey, that amazing thing you heard we were going to do, we’re absolutely not doing it.”
A small band of pranksters and anti-World Trade Organization protesters known as The Yes Men are dedicated to sabotaging international free trade in the strangest ways possible. Their earlier antics have included changing the voices of some Barbie and GI Joe dolls, as well as making a website that closely resembled former Governor George W. Bush at the time he chose to run for president. Bush’s retort that there should be restrictions on freedom was fantastic. Naturally, the WTO wasn’t too happy with The Yes Men. This book serves as a complement to the excellent movie I recently saw. It demonstrates the effort Andy and Mike made to sabotage numerous international free trade gatherings.
You would be astounded by how much time and effort they actually put into it, especially for the textile conference in Finland, which was absolutely hilarious. I’d never laughed so hard as I did when Andy let loose that phallus on the unwary crowd. Even hilarious was the notion that McDonald’s would essentially recycle food waste into meals for hungry third-world nations. The response from a college class when Andy and Mike presented the proposal was fantastic. Like in “The Corporation,” Michael Moore makes a cameo appearance in this movie. Despite how amusing the guy is, nothing new was said.
