Art of the prank, the Yes Men and WDM

Date: 4 November 2010

Iain Thom, WDM campaign assistant

Earlier today I found out Mike Bonnano, one of the amazing Yes Men, made a video for our campaigner convention in Edinburgh last year.  I’m a big fan of the Yes Men’s antics, if you haven’t yet seen these comedic vigilantes in action, what have you been doing!? Watch the trailer here.

I dug out Mike’s video from the recesses of our laptop.  We had invited him to talk with us about whether campaigning really made a difference.  We were on the eve of a visit by the G20 finance ministers to St Andrews and broad coalition of NGOs were gathering to ‘Put People First’ in the post-financial crash and post-banking bailout world that was 2009.

So turns out he lives in the UK, I never knew that!

I went to that G20 finance meeting now one year ago.  In the morning on St Andrews beach twenty of us donned our suits and bowler hats and stuck our heads in the sand.  Why?  Well at the time I wasn’t sure the dizzy feeling you get by doing a handstand for half an hour was worth it, but the following day every major paper had pictures of the G20’s ostrich mentality to the broken global financial system with its inherent inequalities and poverty.

We all know pictures are more powerful than words, and in my mind playful pranks are more powerful again.  The Yes Men understand this and I hope Mike thought our attempt was a good enough effort!

Find out about your local WDM group to get involved in your own creative activism…