Yes Men

The "Yes Men", a group of stealthy, guerrilla media activists use the same media sources as large corporations do to deliver information to the masses that, though fictional in its exact content, reveal a truth about these larger corporations. I say guerrilla media activists because their approach to reaching the public through mainstream, viral media is unconventional and innovative. Like Noam Chomsky's description of society's fixation on the media in such a way that actually eliminates any reason or choice in believing it, the Yes Men play off of subtleties within their critiques that are just different enough to draw attention. The point of their media activism is in part to draw attention to themselves, but interestingly enough, is produced in such a way that results in most attention being on the subject of their staged events. Important issues are brought to the surface, and the larger corporations (which had previously refused responsibility by either ignoring the matter or covering it up) are faced with questions from the public, which had not known to ask or assume such questions or information. The Yes Men succeed at shaking the public out of this state of lulled trust in whatever the media says, and with a touch of satirical irony, is able to unearth some important issues that require public input.