Yes Men Say No To Milton Friedman, Dow, Big Oil By Dave Shiflett (Bloomberg)—If you like Milton Friedman, you’re gonna hate Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno, aka The Yes Men. Their crusade against the “free market cult” championed by the late Nobel Laureate is chronicled in “The Yes Men Fix The World,” which airs on HBO July 27 at 9 p.m. New York time. Often posing as spokesmen for “corporations we don’t like,” the world-infamous pranksters target Exxon Mobil, Dow Chemical, and Halliburton in high-profile spoofs that sometimes have a serious effect on the bottom line. All in the name of truth, justice, and renewable energy. The first segment, to my mind the most compelling, illustrates their modus operandi. The Yes Men create a fake website for Dow in anticipation of the 20th anniversary of the Bhopal disaster, which occurred Dec. 3, 1984. Since Dow had bought Union Carbide, which operated the Bhopal facility, they assume at least one media outlet would come looking for a company representative. They were right. The BBC invited them in for an interview at their Paris office and got lots more news than expected. Bichlbaum, posing as Dow spokesman Jude Finisterra, announced the company was not only going to finally clean up the disaster site but also distribute billions of dollars among survivors. Suddenly the BREAKING NEWS banner appears, though the hoax was discovered soon after airing and apologies were quickly issued, with the BBC saying the “interview was inaccurate and part of an elaborate deception.” Au contraire, the Yes Men argue. The interview was actually “an honest representation of what Dow should be doing.” The marketplace had a different view. The company lost over $2 billion in 23 minutes, the film says. Viewers who share the view that the “free market cult puts everyone else at risk” and that if “we let the free market cult keep running the world, there wouldn’t be a world left to fix” will love this film. If your teeth are set to grinding by declarations such as “big oil” is “destroying the planet” and don’t agree that Milton Freidman is a “guru of greed” who unleashed a plague of evil free-market marauders, you’ll likely think these guys have rocks in their heads. Yet it’s hard not to agree that both possess a considerable set of stones, and that they sure know how to liven up a conference. They sabotage several, including an energy conference where they present Exxon Mobil’s revolutionary new renewable energy resource – Vivoleum – to be made from the victims of global warming. They pass around samples in candle form; when lit they smell like burning flesh. The stink was short-lived as conference officials sent them packing, with malice. They did a bit better passing themselves off as Halliburton reps introducing the SurvivaBall, a very expensive inflatable suit that protects executives and other well-heeled consumers from most forms of natural and man-made disasters. While some of the audience is simply amused others seem to take an interest in the garb. The show has many amusing moments but drags in parts. Like many evangelicals the duo seems a bit smug at times, and contradictory. Sure, big oil is making lots of money selling fuel, especially to guys like the Yes Men, whose jetting about between Paris, India, the U.K. and North America leaves a carbon footprint any oil baron would envy. That said, you’ve got to admire a couple of guys who produced 100,000 bogus copies of the New York Times that was distributed in Manhattan on Nov. 12, 2008, announcing that the war in Iraq was over, the Patriot Act repealed, a free university system established, the oil industry nationalized, a “maximum wage” law passed, and the devil issued a summons: “Court Indicts Bush on High Treason Charge.” If you’re gonna dream, dream big. Yet both seem to sense that despite their efforts, Friedman and Company continue to hold a strong hand. After one conference prank, they say of the audience: “Instead of freaking out they just took our business cards.” Dave Shiflett is a critic for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.)
