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political parody and satire. The pair’s approach began with BLO and SimCopter stunts the pair spearheaded separately: Vamos and the BLO addressed perceptions of gender roles while Servin’s SimCopter hack became a critique of the sexual bias created by the heterosexual male- dominated computer gaming industry. 31 Thus, the BLO Stunt and SimCopter hack corrected previously abstruse preconceptions of how men and women are supposed to act. GWBush.com, the RTMark project of identity correction that spawned the Yes Men, in turn became a more centralized, dedicated entity than RTMark, with which to approach the problem of skewed image perception of the world’s elite. The Yes Men and Its Parody Websites As mentioned above, Vamos and Servin underwent another identity metamorphosis in 1999 with the creation of the Yes Men, this time as Mike Bonanno and Andy Bichlbaum, respectively. The Yes Men website describes the group’s possible and chosen targets as “leaders and big corporations who put profits ahead of everything else.” 32 This is not to be confused with identity theft, or “when Small-time criminals impersonate honest people in order to steal their money.” 33 So, according to their line of thinking, when the Yes Men have impersonated or imitated people in positions of power, it is with the intent to improve rather than harm. Vamos and Servin (referred to as Bonanno and Bichlbaum when in the context of the Yes Men) write, “The Yes Men have impersonated some of the world’s most powerful criminals at conferences, 31 The Yes Men, “Identity Correction,” The Yes Men, http://www.theyesmen.org, accessed April 7, 2005. 32 Ibid. 33 Ibid. 16
on the web, and on television, in order to correct their identities.” 34 The group’s name stems from their tactics, an exaggerated manipulation of ideas of their targets. “We [the Yes Men] agree with people—turning up the volume on their ideas as we talk, until they can see their ideas distorted in our funhouse mirror.” 35 This philosophy of exaggerated accordance was in place as the Yes Men (still in association with RTMark at the time) were presented with their next opportunity for identity correction: Jonathan Prince, a blogger from Washington, DC, heard of the GWBush.com website and contacted Vamos and Servin about creating a similar site for the World Trade Organization. 34 Ibid. This references the Yes Men’s impersonation of the World Trade Organization, which is discussed below. 35 Ibid. Fig. 3 World Trade Organization Homepage. Fig. 4 The Yes Men’s Gatt.org. 17
Page 1 and 2: THE YES MEN AND ACTIVISM IN THE INF
Page 3 and 4: TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Page 5 and 6: INTRODUCTION “The Master’s tool
Page 7 and 8: of RTMark (pronounced “artmark”
Page 9 and 10: “paradox of incommunicability,”
Page 11 and 12: The BLO, SimCopter, and the Emergen
Page 13 and 14: at least embarrass, large corporati
Page 15 and 16: undermine, focusing on channeling c
Page 17 and 18: Another tactic employed by RTMark,
Page 19: freedom.” 27 This remark was wide
Page 23 and 24: attle with the WTO, this one mimick
Page 25 and 26: In 2000, the Yes Men received an em
Page 27 and 28: Vernon Ellis, the International Cha
Page 29 and 30: een including 20% ‘post-consumer
Page 31 and 32: Furthermore, Jude Finisterra (whose
Page 33 and 34: ears. No violent or strong audience
Page 35 and 36: and therefore may make their action
Page 37 and 38: The Art of Parody From Jonathan Swi
Page 39 and 40: Treating Others As We Would Like To
Page 41 and 42: the images surrounding it. In the w
Page 43 and 44: constructed nature of media represe
Page 45 and 46: habits of perception.” 80 Joseph
Page 47 and 48: public spectacles, and press covera
Page 49 and 50: of their earlier Sexism Rears Its U
Page 51 and 52: the children who see the ads every
Page 53 and 54: along with the works of Rodriguez d
Page 55 and 56: available in print form but widely
Page 57 and 58: hierarchies and the rigid structure
Page 59 and 60: The Instant Information Age What ma
Page 61 and 62: according to Debord, has stripped u
Page 63 and 64: hands of the white, Anglo-Saxon est
Page 65 and 66: appeared in public, as well as in c
Page 67 and 68: into submission by a barrage of med
Page 69 and 70: Their feature film, The Yes Men, is
Page 71 and 72:
BIBLIOGRAPHY Aaron, Kenneth. “The
Page 73 and 74:
Electronic Disturbance Theater. “
Page 75 and 76:
Myerson, Sylvie. “The Art of Conf
Page 77 and 78:
World Trade Organization. “WTO DG
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