All hijinks... ever
These are projects carried out over the years by the Yes Men and their student and organizational partners.
For a timeline of when and why they occurred, see our timeline (coming soon). For why we did certain actions, and how well we think they succeeded, see our press pages. For the full, gory stories behind actions, take a peek behind the curtain.
A Gift for Amsterdam
It's rare that a single action has concrete results; generally, it has to be part of a long-term campaign. In this case, a single action galvanized such a campaign, which quickly achieve results: a squat, under imminent threat of eviction, was saved…
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Occupy With Aloha
During the gala dinner of the November 2011 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) conference, renowned Hawaiian guitarist Makana spent 45 minutes repeatedly singing an Occupy-themed protest ballad and wearing an "Occupy with Aloha" t-shirt.
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Bullfight On Wall Street
Inspired by the annoyingly ubiquitous Wall Street bull "ballerina" image, and desiring to bring it make a more powerful and exact version, a bullfighter in full traje de luces headed towards the Wall Street bull. Distracted by a couple of rodeo…
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Brokers and Police for the Occupation
Something amazing appeared one day in front of the Wall Street Bull in downtown Manhattan: a protest in favor of Occupy Wall Street by dozens of suited-up stockbrokers and motorcycle-riding police. "Brokers and Police for the Occupation," read their…
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Occupy Wall Street actions
Zuccotti Square in Manhattan was occupied in September 2011, the result of a whole lot of local organizing (and not, as some have claimed, the result of a call in Adbusters magazine).
Here's the story of how we first found ourselves drawn in to…
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Phone Story
How would you like to force children to mine precious metals, save suicidal workers from jumping to their deaths so they can labor another day, or find the cheapest way to dispose of mountains of e-waste—all while keeping productivity up so you can…
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Coal Cares
An environmental group asks the Yes Men to highlight the newly-proven link between childhood asthma and coal. The result: a "coal industry" initiative called Coal Cares, offering free decorated inhalers to children who live within a few miles of…
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The Water is Safe To Drink
Official-looking stickers, chillingly assuring that the water is "most likely safe," appeared above public faucets throughout New York. The stickers, and the website they refer to, were created in order to alert people to just what would be at stake…
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The Alberta Tar Sands is ... Mordor?
A fuzzy cell phone video of an Elijah Woods sighting in Alberta, Canada. A fake Alberta Film website touting the advantages of filming at the Tars Sands. A fake production company website, a gossip video blog, an angry press release by the Tolkien…
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Coal for the Rich
Students from Columbia College in Chicago came together with Greenpeace and The Yes Lab to take on the Chicago coal industry. The group created an elaborate scheme to announce that a new coal plant was planned—but instead of going in a poor…
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GE Returns Billions to Public Coffers... Not
When GE announced that the company would return its illegitimate (but legal) $3.2 billion tax refund, and that they would lobby to close the sort of corporate tax loopholes that had allowed them to skip taxes in the first place, it seemed too good…
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My Hair Cares
PROBLEM: Oil Spill.
SOLUTION: Mop it up with human hair!
That was the message behind the cockamamie “MyHairCares” hoax, attributed to oil transport giant Enbridge, a Canadian company looking to build a 700+ mile pipeline through pristine British…
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Videos
These are videos that reveal actions, are used within actions, or come out of actions.
For standalone shorts, see our movies page.
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