Lessons we've learned

These are a few of the lessons we and our partners have learned, all linked to stories of the times that we learned them.
A campaign is like a long-term strategy but more detailed and intensive; it requires active upkeep by a persistent activist group. As Ivan Marovic writes, "Unlike…
Actions on their own can't change much, no matter how cool or amazing they might be. But movements almost always succeed — so as part of a movement, actions succeed as…
Never, ever, ever punch down. Jokes are funny when they mock the powerful. They are not funny when they mock the powerless. That's why right-wing humor is just not funny…
You might not, but it can get you through the hard work. Just don't believe it too hard. It's a conundrum: when dreaming up an action, and carrying it out, you may have…
Sometimes utopian fictions come true — like when neighbors of an Amsterdam squat, briefly misled that the squat was officially recognized, then helped to save it. But…
It's useful to imagine a world in a better form. But utopias generally go very wrong, whether they're initiated by states, markets, or cultures. It's hard to create a…
This one's a doozy, because both Andy and Mike first learned it before the Yes Men existed, and it's informed much of what we've done since. And certainly not only us,…
We're all gullible: that's human nature! In fact, it's our greatest attribute. To be able to believe nonsense is what distinguishes humans from all other animals, …
There are two kinds of public lying, dishonorable and honorable. The dishonorable kind is all about creating change through lying — it's a tactic to get your enemy to do…
There are many reasons to have fun doing whatever you're doing. For one thing, it's more self-sustaining. For another, fun is contagious: if you're excited, others,…
Forgetting can be just as important as remembering! Like, when you've done something for twenty years, you'll probably feel compelled to do it again, just because. But…
Sometimes speaking to your own group is the most important thing you can do. The mass media is a powerful megaphone that can be used for good or evil. Almost everything…
We all know money sucks, but it can also suck the life out of activism. In the Yes Men's case, every time we've had more money than we strictly needed, it's led to ruin!
More than once—ok, more than a dozen times—we've been certain that they were going to get us.  We've thought we were walking into a police trap (Dow BBC); that our…
Though there are many uses for humor in activism, at every level, campaigns are way more important than jokes—or any individual action. A single humorous action can…
Sometimes a whole project can be summed up in one single picture. When you see men in suits and cops on bikes protesting together for Occupy Wall Street, or of a bunch…
Pretty much every Yes Men project has taken its lead from a movement or campaign we respected. At the very start, in 1999, the (looming) Seattle protests inspired us to…
You can't totally predict what the media will say. When we went on the BBC, we had no idea that the UK press would report on the (fictitious) "false hopes" of Bhopalis.…
Many actions can become powerful just through the telling. But they do have to be told — by you. For one thing, the media might completely misrepresent you, despite your…
Sometimes, what actually happens is far better than what you had hoped for.  When the US Chamber of Commerce's head of PR was tipped off by an errant reporter and tried…
The most important work comes in the telling. Whether your project's exploding, or whether it just sort of went "phht," there's probably tons of work ahead, telling the …
When campaigns win, or when actions make a big splash, it can seem like that was the plan all along. But sometimes, you just put one foot in front of the other.
Fascism—in the White House, for example—makes all the issues so clear they don't need humor for help. During "normal" times, creative humor can help expose what's wrong…
You might want to give yourself a tight deadline. If you have six months to do a project, and then another six months (as we did with our Exxon project), it'll take you…
We've learned again and again that our targets are unlikely to sue us, because we can always win in the court of public opinion.  We were once sued, though, by the US…