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

[in this case, corporate culture] when the form of the artwork and the persona of the artist is
effectively another expression of that very thing?” 141 While RTMark was able to find a happy
medium between their message and the ideas they were subverting, as the Yes Men, Vamos and
Servin have appropriated too much of their target’s messages.
The Yes Men affirm the tenets of their targets to the point of ridicule, yet they also rely
on public disapproval of their work by the entities they attack. Vamos and Servin have noted
that opposition is the key to their success. If their target does not complain loudly in the public
eye, their work is impotent since it is only when the target disapproves and gets angry that their
message succeeds. In this way, GWBush.com was the only stunt that was successful, because it
caused George W. Bush public embarrassment when he impetuously announced that there should
be limits to freedom. The Yes Men explain this need for disapproval themselves: GWBush.com
worked so well because Bush retaliated in a very angry, vocal way. When the group attempted to
do the same with then-New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, the website fizzled away without
making an impact, because Giuliani ignored it and never acknowledged the website publicly. 142
The WTO at first retaliated to Gatt.org with cease and desist letters and harsh words. When this
only fueled the Yes Men’s fire, the WTO quickly learned to back off, making the Yes Men’s
tactics impotent.
141 Nino Rodriguez, “Subject: net.art,” Rhizome, December 23, 1999, http://rhizome.org/print.rhiz?1610, accessed
November 11, 2003.
142 Bonanno, 15.
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