The Yes Men Fix the World
If the fact that anti-corporate pranksters the Yes Men are playing the same joke over and over again is a bit of a damper, but at least they're getting better at being heard. Their Dow stunt involved announcing to an audience of three million people on the BBC that the corporate goliath would be taking full and financial responsibility for the largest industrial accident in history, and their fake edition of the New York Times, filled with wishful headlines from a utopic near future like "Iraq War Ends," was widely discussed and publicized. The effectiveness of the Yes Men's hoaxes is debatable, though, as even they halfway admit. Other than providing Jackass-style entertainment for the NPR set, their actions have never resulted in modified behavior from those they've pilloried. At best they serve as inspirational figures, helping drive awareness, and at worst, well, they're still pretty funny.
by Marjorie Skinner