The Yes Men: fighting to save greedy executives, from themselves
If we can't count on the government to keep us safe from the the Madoffs, coal ash spills that swallow up entire houses, arsenic in our tap water, or E. coli in our hamburger meat, then it's nice to have American D.I.Y.-ness to hold big business accountable.
Meet The Yes Men, two wacky guys who pose as regular corporate executives and say in public the things they wish corporations would. They do this by setting up websites cloned to look like the multinational corporations they want to prank, then wait to get invited to big industry conferences. When the invitations roll in, and they do, it's gloves off.
Their recent acts of hilarity include posing as Exxon Mobil execs and giving a morbid keynote speech on climate change to 300 oilmen at Canada's largest fuel conference. They also stopped by the Wharton School of Business as representatives of the World Trade Organization to tout new exploitation strategies for Africa.
"You learn the difference between right and wrong when you're very young, and somehow most of us forget it when we go out to work. Because we've set up a system where corporations are rewarded for bad behavior as long as they're making a profit," says Mike Bonanno, one half of the key duo of The Yes Men's operation.
Now their exploits have been captured in a movie, "The Yes Men Fix the World," which shows their activist sword-wielding. It is now hitting the road--you can look for a screening near you here.
