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THE YES MEN AND ACTIVISM IN THE INFORMATION AGE
A Thesis
Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the
Louisiana State University and
Agricultural and Mechanical College
in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of
Master of Arts
in
The School of Art
By
Lani Boyd
B.F.A., Louisiana State University, 2002
May 2005
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to thank Dr. Susan Ryan for her patience and persistent pushing when I
needed it most, Rod Parker for his confidence in my ability to do this, and H. Parrott Bacot for
his guidance, which I could not have done without. I would also like to thank my parents for
always greeting me with open arms (and open wallets), Rusty for simply always being there,
Camile for her never-ending kind words, and Jill for her 24-hour tech support. I would not have
survived this without you.
ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
……………………………………………………………… ii
ABSTRACT
………………………………………………………………………………. iv
INTRODUCTION
………………………………………………………………………... 1
A HISTORY OF IDENTITY CORRECTION
…………………………………………. 6
The BLO, SimCopter, and the Emergence of RTMark……………………………. 7
RTMark and GWBush.com Versus George W. Bush………………………….….. 14
The Yes Men and Its Parody Websites……………………………………………. 16
The Yes Men as the World Trade Organization…………………………………... 20
The Yes Men and Dow……………………………………………………………..26
Public Estimation of the Yes Men………...……………………………………….. 28
THE YES MEN AND THEIR PRECEDENTS
………………………………………… 32
The Art of Parody…………………………………………………………………. 33
Tactical Obfuscation Vs. Parody: DowEthics.com and Mad-Dow-Disease.com…. 34
Situationism and Détournement…………………………………………………... 36
Video Guerrillas and Institutional Critique………………………………………. 38
ACTIVISM IN THE INFORMATION AGE
…………………………………………… 46
Culture Jamming and Hacktivism………………………………………………… 46
The Instant Information Age……………………………………………………… 55
CONCLUSION
……………………………………………………………………………62
BIBLIOGRAPHY
………………………………………………………………………… 67
VITA
……………………………………………………………………………………… 74
iii
ABSTRACT
Western history is filled with pranks and trickery intent on enlightening audiences by
blending fiction with reality. The Yes Men, an Internet-based activist group, did just that, forging
new ground and establishing themselves as political pranksters in a media-dominant global
society. With an arsenal of parody, satire, interventions, and tactical obfuscation, the Yes Men
attack those who they feel abuse their positions of power. They have impersonated public
persons and infamous entities, including President George W. Bush, the World Trade
Organization, and Dow Chemical. Their mimicry is so convincing, that the audience cannot
decipher between satire and the real thing. This thesis considers why the confusion happens, and
to what extent the nature of simulation has hindered the Yes Men’s message.
Igor Vamos and Jacques Servin, the creators of the Yes Men, are a pair of activist artists
who have attempted to bridge the gap between art, activism and commerce. Vamos and Servin’s
works as the Yes Men are analyzed within the context of the corporate realm, where they enact
their performances. This analysis puts forth the argument that, as Vamos and Servin evolved
into the Yes Men, they have been successful in terms of publicity and self-promotion. The Yes
Men, however, have been assimilated by the very corporate and societal structure they fight
against, thus nullifying their intent.
iv
INTRODUCTION
“The Master’s tools will be used to take apart the Master’s house”
1
Anonymous
Artists and authors are no strangers to the art of parody, from the pamphlets of Jonathan
Swift, to Rob Reiner’s
This Is Spinal Tap
“mockumentary,” to performance artists Coco Fusco
and Guillermo Gomez-Peña’s
Two Undiscovered Amer-Indians Visit the West
(1992), in which
the artists presented themselves in museums as unspoiled natives from the Caribbean. Western
history has been filled with pranks and trickery intent on enlightening audiences by blending
fiction with reality.
2
The Yes Men, an Internet-based activist group, have done just that. The Yes
Men have forged new ground and established themselves as political pranksters in an ever
increasingly media-dominant global society. With an arsenal consisting of parody, satire,
interventions, and tactical obfuscation, the Yes Men attack those who they feel abuse their
positions of power. Always with a dose of humor, the Yes Men have impersonated very public
persons and entities, including President George W. Bush, the World Trade Organization, and
Dow Chemical. Yet their mimicry is so convincing, their audience cannot decipher between satire
1
Adage taken from Anthony Sebok, “The Strange Paradox of RTMark: Can Corporate Status Protect An Anti-
Corporate Site From Liability For Sabotage?”
FindLaw’s Legal Commentary
findlaw.com/sebok/20011119.html, accessed November 11, 2003.
2
Caroline Vercoe, “Agency and Ambivalence: A Reading of Works by Coco Fusco,” in
The Bodies That Were Not
Ours And Other Writings
, by Coco Fusco (New York: Routledge, 2001), 231.
1
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