THE YES MEN AND ACTIVISM IN THE INFORMATION ... - Index of

In 2000, the Yes Men received an email invitation through Gatt.org addressed to Michael
Moore (Director General of the WTO, not the filmmaker and creator of Fahrenheit 9/11) to
speak at an international trade law conference in Salzburg, Austria. They replied, stating that Mr.
Moore would be unable to attend but a WTO representative would be sent in his place, “Dr.
Andreas Bichlbauer,” played by Servin. The conference accepted Mr. Moore’s replacement, and
on October 27, 2000 in Salzburg, “Dr. Bichlbauer” presented a lecture on hindrances to free trade.
In his lecture, he proposed a solution to the current “staleness” of democracy in the form of a
website that would auction votes to the highest bidder, and announced that the siesta in Italy
prevented a KLM/Alitalia merger because Italians were lazy. They had even brought along a
friend to tape the events for posterity, which proved fruitful later on for their feature film. But to
their shock, Bichlbauer was greeted with polite applause at the close of his lecture, and afterward
was commended by members of the audience. 46 On his way out of the conference, a protester
assaulted Dr. Bichlbauer with a pie to the face. Witnesses expressed their condolences on the
unfortunate pie flinging, but no one took issue with the contents of his lecture. 47 Vamos and
Servin were dumbfounded that their speech did not seem to offend the sensibilities of
international trade lawyers. 48 On November 21, 2000 an email was sent out to the conference
delegates relating the tragic pie episode that happened after the lecture. The pie incident, they
46 VoteAuction.com was shut down before the 2000 presidential election. See http://www.VoteAuction.net for a
copy of the original site.
47 Linda Dzuverovic-Russell, “The artist and the Internet: a breeding ground for deception,” Digital Creativity Vol.
14, No.3 (2003): 152, 152-158.
48 Bonanno, 39.
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