Blog 11 The Yes Men

The Yes Men provide the public with “what if” scenarios, in which “big businesses” actually demonstrate concern for the well being of the masses. They play the characters of “yes men”, company spokesmen commonly associated with political and social spin, only instead of speaking in the interest of big businesses they claim to represent, the Yes Men speak in the interest of the public. There is no denying that big businesses show more concern for profit than they do for the consumers who buy their products or the workers who make their products. In the case of Dow Chemical, the business neglected to take responsibility for paying damages to the chemical spill victims in Bhopal, a chemical spill caused by their newly acquired asset, the Union Carbide chemical company. The Yes Men's prank of impersonating a Dow Chemical representative and informing the public that Dow was finally taking the initiative to pay these damages, demonstrated what could have been a possible action taken by Dow; the Yes Men wanted to show the world that Dow Chemical could have paid damages to the chemical spill victims by liquidating Union Carbide, but were, in fact, paying nothing. The Yes Men exposed Dow Chemical 's selfishness and greed on world television, as well as the greed of the company's investors who sold their stock following the false claim, causing Dow Chemical's stock to plummet $2 billion.

I believe that the concept of false consciousness is attacked throughout the film, which is of course aided by its partners, propaganda and commodity fetishism. Dow Chemical could have paid damages to the Bhopal spill victims, or at least paid for the area to be properly cleansed of dangerous chemicals, but instead chose to lull the public into a false state of consciousness. The plight of the spill victims was ignored, and Dow Chemical made a new commercial promoting the image of the company as “working to make the word a better place to live” (I cannot decide whether this is ironic, or hypocritical). The propagandistic commercial was essentially a cover up, a method by which Dow Chemical could acquire a new asset for itself, while quietly sweeping the asset's debts under the rug. This ties into commodity fetishism, because the company places more value on its inventory and its profits, than it does the health and safety of its workers and the people who live in the areas affected by the spill. The Yes Men showed that though Dow Chemical claimed to have human lives as its priority in its commercial, the only human beings the company was really concerned for were share holders and “loyal” consumers.