Latest Hijinks

The Yes Men agree their way into the fortified compounds of commerce, ask questions, and then smuggle out the stories of their hijinks to provide a public glimpse at the behind-the-scenes world of business. In other words, the Yes Men are team players... but they play for the opposing team.

Vivoleum

Exxon's Climate-Victim Candles

June, 2007 |

Imposters posing as ExxonMobil and National Petroleum Council (NPC) representatives delivered an outrageous keynote speech to 300 oilmen at GO-EXPO, Canada's largest oil conference, held at Stampede Park in Calgary, Alberta, today.

Wharton

WTO Proposes Slavery for Africa

November, 2006 |

At a Wharton Business School conference on business in Africa, World Trade Organization representative Hanniford Schmidt announced the creation of a WTO initiative for "full private stewardry of labor" for the parts of Africa that have been hardest hit by the 500 years of Africa's free trade with the West.

HUD

HUD Secretary Jackson Announces New Direction for Agency

August, 2006 |

The Yes Men get themselves invited to the Gulf Coast Reconstruction Conference as HUD, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. In the wake of Katrina, HUD has collaborated with large private developers in tearing down public housing, despite a dire need for it. In the Yes Men's version, HUD behaves quite differently.

Survivaball

Halliburton solves global warming!

May, 2006 |

"The SurvivaBall is designed to protect the corporate manager no matter what Mother Nature throws his or her way," said Fred Wolf, a Halliburton representative who spoke today at the Catastrophic Loss conference held at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Amelia Island, Florida. "This technology is the only rational response to abrupt climate change," he said to an attentive and appreciative audience.

Dow Annual Meeting

Politely requesting remedy

May, 2005 |

Dow wasn't taking any chances at this year's Annual General Meeting (AGM). For the first time in Dow's existence, each and every shareholder was being searched on entry. A phalanx of guards had been hired, and a battery of eight metal detectors were set up at the entrance to the Midland, Michigan Center for the Arts. Every one of the two thousand shareholders who would show up had to empty pockets, check cellphones, get wanded. Old ladies had to let guards rifle through their purses.

Acceptable Risk

Dow Discovers a Golden Skeleton!

April, 2005 |

On April 28, 2005, at a London banking conference to which they had accidentally been invited because of their satirical website, "Dow representative" "Erastus Hamm" unveiled "Acceptable Risk," a Dow industry standard for determining how many deaths are acceptable when achieving large profits.

Bhopal on BBC

Dow Does the Right Thing

November, 2004 |

Jude announces a radical new direction for Dow, where they take full responsibility for the 1984 Bhopal India disaster.

Global warming petitions, Cleveland

May, 2004 |

We have been out for half an hour, and already we have collected a dozen on-camera signatures supporting Bush's new pro-America ice age.

Heritage

Smash the State

April, 2004 |

Heritage is the biggest free-market think tank - in fact the biggest think tank period - in Washington. It has a budget of $25 million and provides "talking points" to conservative Congressmen who don't have time to do their own research. Heritage is a kind of "grey eminence" behind Congress, and very actively helps direct U.S. politics.

Dow Does the Wrong Thing

December, 2002 |

On Dec. 3, 2002, the eighteenth anniversary of the Union Carbide (i.e. Dow) disaster at Bhopal, a press release was sent out by Dow-Chemical.com, telling Dow's story more honestly than Dow ever does.