BERLIN (AP) – Watch out, the Yes Men are coming.
Wearing suits bought in a Salvation Army store and wielding little more than a fake press release, the American duo are out to shake up the debate on climate change, Arctic oil and corporate greed.
It’s a mission they’ve been on since 1999, when Igor Vamos and Jacques Servin – aka Mike Bonanno and Andy Bichlbaum – began to earnestly pursue their second careers as political pranksters.
Since then they’ve conducted more than 40 stunts, each on a shoe-string budget and with publicity as the main aim. In a third documentary about their work, called “The Yes Men are Revolting,” viewers get to see polar bears become vehicles for satire and arms dealers embrace renewable energy. But both protagonists also question whether their work is making an impact in the face of the immense global challenge of climate change.
On the eve of presenting the documentary at the Berlin Film Festival, the Yes Men talked Monday about whether they would ever take hush money to stop making fun of big companies.