by Joshua Gomez
The Yes Men is a 2003 documentary film about the early culture jamming exploits of The Yes Men. For those who don’t know the Yes men are a culture jamming activist duo and network of supporters created by composed of Jacques Servin and Igor Vamos. They try to expose these bigtime companies who make profit in a dehumanizing way. They pass themselves off as representatives of big corporations that they don't like and make fake websites and wait for people to accidentally invite them to conferences. Shell, Coca Cola, Exxon, Dow chemical, and the HUD are some of the corporations targeted by the Yes Men. The film was seen with mixed reviews with rotten tomatoes giving it an 84%, IMDb 6.9/10, and Metacrticic a 68%.
In the early parts of the film they pull a hoax on the Chamber of commerce. They set up a fake press conference and that is when things become interesting. . They even got interrupted by an actually member who knew it was a hoax but he still played along. It was based on the damaging effects of climate change. They found out about this and released a statement: After we have not changed stance on climate change contrary to report. This hoax made it to the big times news. Ironically after a couple of months the U.S chamber of commerce announces free enterprise survival strategy and that they would support the legislation that it was fighting against for months. The U.S chambers even used the opportunity to fund raise asking for as high as 250 dollars for something they did not do. They even wanted all of the DVDs to be destroyed, even sued them as well and the U.S commerce does not want people to see this video.
They even spoke about the Bhopal disaster one of the world’s worst industrial disaster which was the doings of Dow chemical company. The Yes Men are trying to stop banks and companies from going to underdeveloped countries where their government is corrupt and if something were to happen to the people it didn't matter because they made their money. This is what happened here in Bhophal. The greed was so large that even to this day the people have not recovered from this disastrous event. Kids suffering from radiation, born with defects, women having menopause at early ages. Things are so bad that the plant is still harming the area to this day and the resident are drinking this contaminated water and using it for everyday things. Instead of cleaning there mess they spent millions cleaning there image. They went on BBC world TV 300 million people and posed as Jude Finisterra Dow chemical spokesman. Here they pulled of one of the biggest hoax in which Dow apologizes and donates money. Due to this Dow lost 2 billion dollars in a 23 minutes which is astounding.
Milton Friedman could be the one to blame for the free market views that are placed upon us now and many of his followers think the same. Views such as if you’re going to kill people might as well make a profit. When he meant free it was for corporations 2 benefit no matter the cost. Although the value of money cannot be compared to the value of human life they think that way. Friedman cool aid the government has been drinking is very apparent. Government got rid of rules that protect people. Friedman even said disaster was not only a chance to get rich but enforce things you want to do. Things such as privatizing schools, kick people out there houses, etc.
The Yes Men had made a splash but the free market was still destroying the world. People were losing homes all around the world, climate change was still a big issue, Bhopal still being affected. A newspaper that's shows the world how it could be. It went six months in the future. A large group of people. We created a system that we had now why can't we create a new one. People were actually happy to see the news even though it was not real. Few people at the top can make the good things happen why can't all the people at the bottom make a good change. And this is the message ultimately trying to be said in this great film.
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