In their documentary "The Yes Men", Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno aim to highlight the control and manipulation which large organizations and representatives have upon the general public. The men claim that no matter how preposterous a product or how foul an idea, the business conglomerates may produce and market it by making the item appear useful and relevant to business. Through pranks and elaborate stunts, the yes men reveal how we, as a society, buy into a system which oppresses and controls us. They claim that media as a whole controls and commands our actions, though we may not be consciously aware of it.
The yes men's hilarious pranks work towards explaining the workings of media and how it influences us on a daily basis. By performing ridiculous stunts, they parallel the crazy and sometimes absurd products which the media strives to market . Often we are sold a product by hearing a tragic story or an over-the-top success story which, although somewhat unbelievable, nevertheless gets the product sold. This concept was best exemplified by the yes men's "Survivaball", with which a person could protect his or herself from anything. Such a ridiculous concept, which would presumably be shot down immediately, was in fact picked up by several insurance companies. This goes to show that with the proper marketing and advertising, one can sell almost anything.
The term false consciousness most closely relates to the experiments of the Yes Men. The public blindly and subconsciously accepts the advertising and statements of these large companies as they see no reason to distrust them. They blindly trust the information they are fed.
In conclusion, the Yes Men's goal of uncovering the shortcomings, hypocrisies and falsehoods of the media and large corporations reveals not only our willingness as a culture to blindly accept that which we are presented with, but also the immense planning which goes into selling the most ridiculous of products.
No comments:
Post a Comment