“Turn all those skeletons in your closet into… GOLDEN skeletons!” cheered a Dow Chemicals representative lecturing at the staid International Payments Conference on April 28, 2005. Smiling golden skeletons paraded around the PowerPoint slideshow projected above his head, along with equally jovial cartoons of men in ties surrounded by piles of money. Well-fed corporate fat cats in the audience chuckled, and then gave a resounding round of applause to the genius of Dow’s new “risk calculating” method of exploiting foreign labor. A politically savvy SNL skit?
Unfortunately, this was a real conference, with the corporate heads that run the world. But the Dow representative was Andy Bichlbaum, one-half of the subversive satire-activist duo known as the Yes Men.
Bichlbaum, along with his partner Mike Bonanno, designed the hilariously disturbing PowerPoint presentation as part of one of the Yes Men’s typical “culture-jamming” schemes. The Yes Men spoke to a packed house of University students and faculty at the CFA Cinema on Wednesday night about practicing what they refer to as “identity correction.”
Bichlbaum and Bonanno travel the nation and the world imitating powerful members of organizations ranging from Dow Chemical to the World Trade Organization.
“How did we get there?” Bonanno responded to one audience member’s inquiry. “Dow made it happen.”
Through cleverly designed websites, they accept invitations to appear at symposia and TV shows, and then use their all-too-easily attained authority to humorously and chillingly publicize how corporations and governmental organizations act in dehumanizing ways toward the public.
“Our goal was to go there and get kicked out,” explained Bonanno, speaking of the first conference that the Yes Men attended.
The Yes Men’s schemes are made truly successful by the real businessmen who sit through and enjoy their lectures without noticing the absurdity of the propositions that they are making.
“People ask us, ‘How can you keep from laughing?’, because it’s really not funny—disturbing is a good word for it,” said Bonanno.
Six months prior to their first presentation on risk management, Bichlbaum and Bonanno were invited to represent Dow for the first time. On November 29, 2004, Bichlbaum posed as Mr. Jude Finisterra for a live interview with the BBC to discuss Dow’s position on the Bhopal tragedy in central India, in which a Dow/Union Carbide pesticide plant released poisonous methyl isocyanate gas into a densely populated town. Three thousand residents died immediately, and another 600,000 were injured. The industrial accident had taken place twenty years before to the day.
The BBC interviewer noticed that this corporate representative was different. Instead of delivering an ambiguous statement and rushing out of the studio, Finisterra announced that, for the first time, Dow wanted to apologize and take full responsibility for the tragedy that today is referred to as the “Hiroshima of the Chemical Industry.” He then proceeded to lay out the company’s plan to compensate the victims and clean up the plant, as the headlines at the bottom of the screen changed to “Breaking News” in flashing red.
The Yes Men do not expect that their presentations will change the agendas of America’s largest and most powerful corporations. “Our bottom line is getting attention for these issues” said Bichlbaum.
The duo hopes to generate discussion about the policies of the companies that it represents, both raising questions and encouraging critical thinking about the issues that they take on. As grass roots activists, they discussed the shortcomings of this form of protest with Wednesday night’s audience, admitting that it may work on a scale that is too small to affect real change.
“Solutions that don’t involve a form of government are doomed,” said Bonanno, stressing the Yes Men’s focus on receiving media attention and pressuring higher-ups for change. “We believe in three R’s: Regulation—and if that doesn’t happen with the next government in office, then Revolution, and if that doesn’t work, well, there is no third R.”
When asked if they identified themselves as artists, the Yes Men explained that, though they have past affiliations with the art world, for this work they consider themselves primarily activists.
“We consider ourselves activists, then artists, but there is more funding for artists than activists right now,” Bonnano said.
Nikhil Melnechuk ’07, a Sociology major, said that he finds it admirable that the Yes Men do their work without pretensions.
“They do not have illusions of grandeur, but they are doing grand things,” Melnechuk said.
Bichlbaum offered a word of advice to students, concluding: “You don’t need skills or talents…you just need to address the problem in a truly creative way. Tell stories, take things on locally…that’s how you reach out to people and get them thinking.”
An installation of one of the Yes Men’s corporate “products” is presently on display at the Zilkha Gallery as part of the “Disaster! One Year After” exhibit.
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