Our new DVD, the "Yes Lab," and plenty of news

Here's a chatty April Fools' season update:

Our DVD comes out in two days (no joke), and you can: buy it, organize your own screening with it, use it as a fundraising tool, etc. (see below). No matter what, you'll be helping us Yes Men with our upcoming plans, including the launch of the "Yes Lab," a sort of institute to generate projects and spread our techniques.

More on that in a moment - but first...

TWO NEW ACTIONS FROM JUST THIS LAST WEEK!

• CODEPINK pulled off a "Yes-Men-inspired" coup last Monday by making everyone think that AIPAC was suddenly agreeing with the Obama Administration's criticism of settlements in the West Bank. The action forced AIPAC, which claims to not have a position on settlements, to admit that it disagrees with current U.S. policy and international law. (It also incidentally drew attention to J Street, the much more representative, intelligent, and cool Jewish lobby - which does have a clear position on settlements.) Later the same day, a CODEPINK operative brusquely interrupted Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu as he gave lip-service to peace.
  
  
• A big shout out to a group in Missoula who made waves in their community last week by widely announcing a shockingly generous "thank you" concert and giveaway on behalf of Macy's and Smurfit-Stone, two longtime Missoula businesses that had closed just before Christmas, laying off hundreds of workers and leaving the town with millions in unpaid property taxes and debt. (Macy's CEO Terry J. Lundgren noted that "we improved our profitability" in 2009 by reducing expenses, "enabling us to generate significant cash flow" of $1.6 billion; Smurfit-Stone, whose operations in Mexico and Asia leave them "well positioned for long term growth," paid out millions in executive bonuses while CEO Sir Michael Smurfit bought a $68 million yacht.) In part thanks to the "thank you Missoula" action, a bunch more folks in Missoula are wondering why the two companies haven't thanked the town for sacrificing prospects and jobs for their profits and yachts.

Oh and speaking of prospects, here are...

SOME EXCITING LEGAL UPDATES!

In case you were wondering how things were going with that whole "being sued by the biggest and most reactionary lobbying organization in the world" thing (thank you, U.S. Chamber of Commerce), we're proud to say we've got the most amazing pro bono legal team imaginable: the Electronic Frontier Foundation and a big law firm called Davis Wright Tremaine. To read about this potentially pivotal, and definitely hilarious, case, please visit the EFF's special page.

Another bit of legal good news: Back in October, someone at our Chicago movie premiere was arrested for handing out charcoal to 150 people who used it to draw all over a nearby Chase branch what they felt about Mountaintop Removal coal mining (Chase is the largest funder of that filthy practice). We're happy to say that all criminal charges against the charcoal-distributor were dropped, thanks to a settlement negotiated by the amazing People's Law Office. A portion of the proceeds from our DVD will help pay off the small costs that resulted.

Those last two paragraphs naturally lead, in a seamless segue, to the subject dearest to our hearts as of late:

THE YES LAB!

Now that the Yes Men get covered in Reader's Digest and USA Weekend (in grotesquely watered-down form), it's probably time to prepare our move into the old folks' home by spreading our know-how to others. We'll tell you more about our nearly-born Yes Lab in late April, but we can't stop ourselves from letting you know that there are already three, count 'em three, Yes Lab projects lined up already. Stay tuned!

Oh and by the way, to help us launch the Yes Lab right, you can buy or screen...

OUR NEW DVD AND ITS MANY EXCITING DOODADS!

We're excited to announce the new, elaborately packaged and somewhat toxic format in which you can now get our film, The Yes Men Fix the World, and 80 minutes of never- or seldom-before-seen extras.

If you buy it from us at the standard retail price ($25), you'll also get a free copy of our "dream edition" New York Times, as well as the knowledge you're helping us continue our de-dirtying work. The DVD (from the excellent folks at Docurama) contains the uncut feature film as well as 80+ minutes of never-before-seen actions, some early Yes Men videos, a seldom-seen bit of TV, and much more. For more on the extras click here.

If watching our DVD by yourself doesn't cut it, why not organize your own screening for friends, colleagues, parishioners, Coffee Party adherents, lovers, pets, or total and complete strangers with an excellent new tool called Good Screenings, set up by Franny Armstrong, director of The Age of Stupid. You can even charge money and keep it.

If you're part of an activist group or just know one, you can use our DVD for fundraising! Because we kept our film's DVD rights, so we can offer NGOs steep discounts for orders of 50 or more, and nearly vertical ones for quantities over 500. Please write to us to discuss.

(If you're in New York, you can watch us flack our DVD in person in a mega-super-ultrastore - one that's just as big as the one that laid off the folks in Missoula. Also no joke. Afterwards, we'll try to find an independent venue nearby to raise a glass - join us!)

AND APROPOS OF NOTHING!

Did you know that Belgian national television played a meaningful practical joke on the entire country (Belgium) back in 2006?

Our friends at Corporate Accountability have helped make a short film about how savvy marketing has gotten Americans to buy half a billion bottles of water each week when they can get it free from the tap. A hilarious April Fool's joke on consumers? Get the whole stupid story at The Story of Bottled Water.

Here's another film about garbage, as well as everything—really everything—else: Isle of Flowers. It's a masterpiece.

Stay tuned for another, less chatty but even more newsy update soon. (Make sure to sign up on our mailing list to be sure you get emails.)