Bens+Film+Annotation+6

Ben Clemence, Annotation #6 November 14, 2011 The Yes Men Fix the World Word Count: 1158


 * Title**: The Yes Men Fix the World
 * Director**: Andy Bichlbaum, Mike Bonanno, Kurt Engfehr
 * Released**: August 2009


 * What is the central argument or narrative of the film?**

The central narrative of the film is about the Yes Men, Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno, and their plight to “fix the world.” They are fed up with how irresponsible corporations have become are attempt to bring it out through huge publicity stunts. By posing as executives at companies such as Dow Chemical and Halliburton they are able to speak at conferences and release statements for companies they do not represent. These stunts border on absurdity and the responses they get from big executives are scary to the point of being amusing.


 * How is the argument or narrative made and sustained? How much scientific information is provided, for example? Does the film have emotional appeal?**

The film focuses around several publicity stunts pulled by the Yes Men. These stunts are designed so to try and illuminate the irresponsible corporation’s behaviors and suggest that it is easily within their means to help those they have affected. Unfortunately the response they get it often negative, for example, the stock prices of Dow Chemical dropped significantly right after they made their fake announcement that Dow would be helping the people of Bhopal. There is some scientific information provided but it is limited and would not have really added anything to the film anyway. The film has a lot of emotional appeal to a wide audience. There are those that will be most affected by the stories of Bhopal, but there will be others that are most affected by the statement that Dow released in response to the Yes Men’s statement. Almost certainly though, the people that will have the strongest emotional reaction to this movie are the ones that were sitting in the conference holding a candle made out of a human.


 * What sustainability problem does the film draw out?**

The film really focuses on behavioral problems with respect to the companies they are impersonating, but it could be argued that there are also media and informational problems. These companies seem to behave as though they are not a part of society and can do whatever they please with no consequences. They are liked spoiled children and have learned how to avoid getting in trouble and not get held accountable. The other behavioral issue is the fact that the second a company, in this case Dow, announced that they would do the right thing, the immediate response was for their stock prices to drop because the shareholders did not support their decision because it would be taking a loss. The media and informational problems are the lack of transparency between companies and everyone else.


 * What parts of the film do you find more persuasive and compelling? Why?**

The part of the film that I found most compelling was the responses they were able to get form the people attending the conferences they spoke at. One that specifically stood out was at the conference where they posed as Halliburton presenting an end of the world survival device. Not only were people unfazed by their ridiculous proposal, they were actually eager to look further into the device and were imagining other possible applications such as use during a terrorist attack.

My favorite part was definitely the fact that Dow had to release the counter statement to the Yes Men’s statement about helping Bhopal. Dow’s statement explicitly said that they in fact would not be providing help to Bhopal as had been announced previously.


 * What parts of the film were you not compelled or convinced by? Why?**

The part of the film that I was not compelled by was the fact that a lot of their stunts were pulled at the expense of those affected. They made the argument that it was for the greater good and even went to Bhopal where they were happy with that fact that they had pulled this stunt even if it did raise their hopes to disappoint them only hours later. It would have been more convincing to see if they could come up with pranks where the only victims are the companies that need to be exposed. Overall though I believe the pranks did far more good than harm and were all very positive.


 * What audiences does the film best address? Why?**

The audience this film best addresses really is the general public. Many people need to take the blinders up from over their eyes and see what these corporations are doing. The fact that Dow was not forced by the public to be held responsible after the statement that the Yes Men released in addition to the one that followed from Dow is absurd.


 * What could have been added to this film to enhance its environmental educational value?**

To enhance its environmental educational value this film could have spent more time discussing the hard facts of the issue instead of showing scenes of them swimming in their suits. I think that added this information would have detracted from the film and cause a loss in viewers. The film was created in a way that makes it both very entertaining and informational. In this case viewer engagement was very high and it allowed them to make a much larger impression.


 * What kinds of actions and points of intervention are suggested by the film? If the film itself does not suggests corrective action, describe actions that you can imagine being effective.**

The film does not make too many suggestions for what viewers can do to make a difference. They don’t make a point to indicate whether or not they hope that people will follow in their footsteps and pull similar pranks. The films focus was more to raise awareness and to illuminate some of the dark side of corporations and their executives that we never see. The things that we can do are to constantly raise our awareness and vote with our dollars for companies that are socially responsible.


 * What additional information has this film compelled you to seek out?**

I was very curious about what the Yes Men are currently up to so I went on their website and found the Yes Lab where they document many different projects that have gone on that were not talked about in the film. One in particular that I liked was Coal Cares and the campaign that they started which, “promised to ‘make asthma cool’” (Coal Cares). They offered free inhalers that had celebrities pictures on them and also a coupon for $10 for asthma medication if you live within a 200 mile radius of a coal plant. The rest of the projects on the Yes Lab’s website share the same level of absurdity and have several news stories that document the effects of their release.

References: Yes Lab. Accessed Nov 14, 2011. < http://yeslab.org/>

Coal Cares. Accessed Nov 14, 2011. < http://www.coalcares.org/>