The Yes Men Fix the World
The Yes Men Fix the World features Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno – yes men for some of the world’s largest corporations who speak on behalf of businesses to millions around the world on matters of urgency to mankind. This is no mean feat since they’re not affiliated with any corporate entity whatsoever. They’re just a couple of pranksters extrapolating the theory of corporations as psychopathic expressed in 2003’s The Corporation and more recently reiterated in 2009 by Michael Moore in Capitalism: A Love Story. Andy and Mike are able go Moore one better in shaming Fortune 500 members on their own turf because they know how to look the part and as yet they’re not recognizable. With surprising ease they set up authentic looking websites for companies like Dow Chemicals and Exxon and wait for requests from news agencies etc. surfing the web looking for spokespeople. Once invited these “Yes Men” then make grandiose promises about how they will clean up the worldwide mess made by the company they allegedly represent. Also surprising is the lack of lawsuits pending against the pair although in press releases that are published verbatim by duped news organizations (themselves part of large corporate machines), spin doctors are quick to vilify Bichlbaum and Bonanno as emissaries of false hope for corporate victims in places like New Orleans and Bhopal. Too bad the people supposedly given false hope don’t feel any animosity since their plight that has been swept under the carpet is swiftly put back in the spotlight. Told in documentary style The Yes Men Fix the World is not really a documentary, it’s more like a long episode pf Punk’d that not only exposes disturbing unbridled corporate evils but also lampoons their high paid PR flacks. Too bad the multinationals don’t spend the money cleaning up their own mess that they pay these guys to deflect their responsibility. That might really help their bottom line.