Blog #11: The Yes Men

By exaggerating reality, The Yes Men, Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno, emphasize how easily companies are manipulating their products and policies and consequently their consumers. Their critique of media is that companies can sell even the most absurd items simply by making them appear extremely useful to the company-constructed consumer perspective. This most closely relates to false consciousness, because society is subconsciously accepting the messages of these companies as facts because they have no reason to think otherwise. The Yes Men pulled ridiculous pranks (like the haliburton survivor ball) in order to make people aware of key points the media fails to mention, as well as the points that are mentioned but are twisted in the company’s favor. In other words, they are lying to gain the truth about the convoluted representations of companies in society. Humor is an effective way to reach public audiences; the Yes Men use many satirical representations of these companies in order to break down the workings of the media and convey their deceitful ways and absurd hyprocrisies. One joke they make is “How many Americans does it take to screw in a lightbulb?” with the answer of “12. 1 to climb the ladder and 11 to file the lawsuit.” This example demonstrates how Americans have been brainwashed into making simple aspects of life extremely complex merely because companies know that more complexity generates more money. They claim that the world is run by “wealth, money, privacy, and freedom”, but they only think this because companies have taught the world that money is so essential to success. The only problem with this system is that while it helps the companies gain wealth and maintain their privacy, it has the exact opposite effect for the consumer society. This negative effect is what The Yes Men are attempting to remedy by making the consumers aware of the companies’ schemes, and ultimately “fix the world.”