Abstract

The Yes Men, Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno, have been called “the Jonathan Swift of the Jackass generation” by author Naomi Klein. The Yes Men have impersonated World Trade Organization, Dow Chemical Corporation, and Bush administration spokesmen on TV and at business conferences around the world. They do this (a) in order to demonstrate some of the mechanisms that keep bad people and ideas in power, and (b) because it’s absurdly fun. As the Yes Men, they use humor, truth and lunacy to bring media attention to the crimes of their unwilling employers. Their second film, The Yes Men Fix the World, won the audience award at this year’s Berlin Film Festival, the Grierson Award for Most Entertaining Documentary, and went on to become a smash box-office sensation, only just barely surpassed by Avatar. Their main goal is to focus attention on the dangers of economic policies that place the rights of capital before the needs of people and the environment.

• Andy Bichlbaum & Mike Bonanno, USA.The Yes Men are an activist group known for satirical interventions at business events, in the streets, and in the media. Armed with nothing but fake websites and thrift store suits, Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno impersonate corporate evildoers in order to draw attention to their crimes against humanity and the environment. Their hit list includes some of the biggest climate criminals, targeting planet – plundering entities such as Shell Oil, Gazprom, and the US Chamber of Commerce. eviltwinbooking.org/speakers/the-yes-men