Home
News
In Focus
Business
Metro
Nation
World
Sports
Feature
Opinion
View more »Opinion Columns
Wan LixinOpinion deputy editor of Shanghai Daily
Restaurants get off to a quick start thanks to game-changing policies
High service charges on event ticket refunds call for further regulation
Sunday
- Subscribe
Related News
Pranksters foolthe world of corporate greed
By Christine Kearney |
July 27, 2009, Monday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
JACQUES Servin fooled the BBC and the world when he posed as a Dow Chemical spokesman five years ago and said that Dow would pay billions of dollars in compensation for India's Bhopal disaster.
Such hoaxes by Servin and his partner, Igor Vamos, better known as the American protest group "The Yes Men," are featured in a documentary premiering on United States cable channel HBO today.
"The Yes Men Fix The World" chronicles their efforts to lampoon what they see as corporate greed and the excesses of a free-market economy. It won the audience award at this year's Berlin film festival and will hit US cinemas in October.
Many aliases
"It's a bit like if you crossed Sacha Baron Cohen with Michael Moore," Vamos said of their stunts in which they portray corporate or government representatives and infiltrate press and trade conferences to make fake announcements.
Vamos, 41, better known as Mike Bonanno, and Servin, 45, who uses the name Andy Bichlbaum among many other aliases, rely on humor to point out corporate and government irresponsibility.
"We have prioritized profit pretty much over everything else and we have seen the results," said Servin. "We are seeing it on Wall Street, with millions of people losing their homes and we are starting to see the results of that globally with climate change."
The BBC interview in 2004 - their biggest hoax - was picked up by several news organizations and caused Dow's shares to tumble 3.4 percent.
"That showed that corporations can't announce that they are going to do the right thing, because they will be punished for it," said Vamos.
Dow Chemical says it bears no responsibility for the Bhopal catastrophe that killed at least 8,000 people and poisoned half a million people after lethal gas escaped from a chemical plant 25 years ago in the Indian city.
The Bhopal factory was owned by Union Carbide, now a Dow subsidiary, which paid the Indian government US$470 million in 1989.
Servin also is seen delivering a speech posing as an Exxon Mobil representative in 2007 at an oil conference in Calgary, showing off an oil product he said was made from people who died in climate-change disasters.
In another hoax, Servin posed as a US government representative announcing that public housing in New Orleans would reopen and that Exxon Mobil would earmark billions to finance wetlands rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina.
Exxon Mobil spokesman Rob Young said: "We think it is a serious matter when people willingly misrepresent themselves."
Halliburton Co is also mocked in the film.
Servin appeared at a Florida conference showing off a survival suit supposedly made by the energy services giant aimed at keeping corporate managers safe in the event of global-warming catastrophes.
Such hoaxes by Servin and his partner, Igor Vamos, better known as the American protest group "The Yes Men," are featured in a documentary premiering on United States cable channel HBO today.
"The Yes Men Fix The World" chronicles their efforts to lampoon what they see as corporate greed and the excesses of a free-market economy. It won the audience award at this year's Berlin film festival and will hit US cinemas in October.
Many aliases
"It's a bit like if you crossed Sacha Baron Cohen with Michael Moore," Vamos said of their stunts in which they portray corporate or government representatives and infiltrate press and trade conferences to make fake announcements.
Vamos, 41, better known as Mike Bonanno, and Servin, 45, who uses the name Andy Bichlbaum among many other aliases, rely on humor to point out corporate and government irresponsibility.
"We have prioritized profit pretty much over everything else and we have seen the results," said Servin. "We are seeing it on Wall Street, with millions of people losing their homes and we are starting to see the results of that globally with climate change."
The BBC interview in 2004 - their biggest hoax - was picked up by several news organizations and caused Dow's shares to tumble 3.4 percent.
"That showed that corporations can't announce that they are going to do the right thing, because they will be punished for it," said Vamos.
Dow Chemical says it bears no responsibility for the Bhopal catastrophe that killed at least 8,000 people and poisoned half a million people after lethal gas escaped from a chemical plant 25 years ago in the Indian city.
The Bhopal factory was owned by Union Carbide, now a Dow subsidiary, which paid the Indian government US$470 million in 1989.
Servin also is seen delivering a speech posing as an Exxon Mobil representative in 2007 at an oil conference in Calgary, showing off an oil product he said was made from people who died in climate-change disasters.
In another hoax, Servin posed as a US government representative announcing that public housing in New Orleans would reopen and that Exxon Mobil would earmark billions to finance wetlands rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina.
Exxon Mobil spokesman Rob Young said: "We think it is a serious matter when people willingly misrepresent themselves."
Halliburton Co is also mocked in the film.
Servin appeared at a Florida conference showing off a survival suit supposedly made by the energy services giant aimed at keeping corporate managers safe in the event of global-warming catastrophes.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
