These aren't your ordinary activists, these are people who impersonate the very officials they oppose. These pranksters thrive on the media attention they get, and in getting people to rethink their assumptions.
Democracy Now! has reported that The Yes Men have struck again this past Tuesday, this time claiming to be a representative of Haliburton Corporation, where The Yes Men gave a presentation at the "Catastrophic Loss" conference at the Ritz-Carlton in Ameila Island, Florida. The phoney spokesman gave his name as "Fred Wolf". Mr. Wolf presented his new invention called "The Survival Ball" to the many conference attendees, which included many leaders of the insurance agency. Mr. Wolf's invention was an orb-like inflatable product to protect corporate managers from the effects of global warming. Wolf said "It's essentially a gated community, for one". The conference attendees seemed to really like the idea, judging from the photos.
Additional pictures and more after the fold.
The "Survival Ball"
The Yes Men "change the world, one prank at a time". They practice what they term, "Identity Correction". How do they do what they do? They set up websites that mimic the websites of the WTO, Haliburton, Dow Chemical, etc., and when it's mistaken for the real thing, they are contacted through those websites to represent those entities at conferences, and sometimes, even on network news. When they are contacted, they are delighted to represent the organization they politically oppose, and they immediately start to create a presentation that attempts to correct the identity of that institution or corporation.
Prior to this successful hoax as a phoney Haliburton representative, they gained notoriety for the hoax on BBC during the 20th anniversary of the Bhopal gas tragedy in December of 2004.
The BBC fell victim to a Yes Man claiming to be a Dow spokesperson, and brought him on-air, where he claimed full responsibility for the Bhopal tragedy, and announced a multibillion dollar compensation package. Not only did this hoax caused Dow to jump in and say, no, we are not sorry about Bhopal, it caused Dow's share price to drop 4.2% in 23 minutes, wiping $2 billion off its market value before recovering all the days losses hours later. Let it be said that The Yes Men would have much rather hoaxed FOX or ABC or NBC or CBS, but it was the BBC that was covering that issue, "those other places couldn't give a rat's ass about Bhopal" stated Andy Bichlbaum in an interview with Amy Goodwin regarding the Bhopal hoax.
They also released a movie in 2003 chronicling various, successful hoaxes presented at the World Trade Organization and other business conferences.
My favorite part of the Yes Men Movie is "The Management Leisure Suit", which they presented to the WTO. The leisure suit features a phallus-like monitoring device with a video panel and controls. The video monitor on the end of the appendage helps executives easily monitor their workers in the sweatshops around the globe while partaking in leisure activity:
It's a hilarious movie, highly recommended.
Wonder where they'll strike next? Can't wait to see.