"Yes Men"

The "Yes Men" critique media in a different way then most people. Rather than just talking about it or making ads they decided to go out into the world and attempt to fix it. They researched the problems to the fullest and devised plans to make the world more aware of the situations that were occurring around the world. In doing there critiquing they were more interested in making a scene to the companies themselves. Although the thought of how the people might react to false hope ran through their minds they felt that making the world see what the big companies could really do was more important. The "Yes Men" created fake websites pretending to be lead people in different corporations. Once their websites sparked hits and their information was read by the public multiple news stations, conferences, and meeting were arranged. Most media outlets thought that they were dealing with the real lead managers or executives of large companies when it was just the "Yes Men" trying to fix the world. These men gave hope, although it was false hope, to the world and the people that were affected by the large companies insensitive acts. Some of the media outlets tried to take down the "Yes Men" by asking questions like "Do you think it was fair to give people false hope?" This question was actually answered by almost every single member of the society that was affected by the large companies. Many citizens in India and New Orleans, the locations of negative results from large companies, were asked how they felt. Almost all of them responded that although it gave them false hope they appreciated it because it showed the world that the companies really could fix what they did to the citizens. It showed the world that the companies are just looking out for themselves and not the people that they might be hurting. I think that the most important factor about the "Yes Men' was that not just that they talked about what needed to be fixed they came up with plans to fix it. They wanted to care about the people. The "Yes Men" remind me of earlier in the quarter when we discussed how easily people can be fooled by media. This showed two levels of it. The citizens were easily fooled about many statements that the "Yes Men" made and second, they also just went along with the original statements from the large companies that nothing could be done or that their ideas were better. Many people were fooled by the paper that the "Yes Men" made. Some people just read it and thought ...wow, really?, where we see very few people mention that the date was six months in advance. It was interesting that some responses were this must be fake. All the readers had to do was to look at the date. However, this paper gave some people hope that the world really can be fixed, all it takes is people willing to make a stand. The media should not be able to sway us so easily. We need to think as a collective unit to make this world better and not just believe what the large companies are saying.