Beware of fake speakers
Check this out: Protesters spring big hoax on oil expo audience. It seems these two guys who call themselves the Yes Men posed as oil industry experts to get speaking gigs at the conference, and weren’t exposed as frauds until “candles supposedly made from remains of a deceased ExxonMobil janitor named Reggie Watts were handed out” to attendees. Eew. From the article:
- As the Yes Men, the pair have travelled the world with an anti-globalization agenda perpetrating hoaxes on groups ranging from the World Trade Organization to the BBC.
In Calgary, ostensibly to promote their book and a documentary they filmed three years ago at the Plaza Theatre tonight, the activists said they couldn’t resist taking a shot at the oil and gas trade show, held over three days this week at Stampede Park.
“This was a great opportunity for us, like the holy grail, really,” said Bichlbaum.
The organizers, understandably, were beyond peeved. Can you even imagine having something like this happen? It sounds like these guys have been able to pull this over quite a few times. In fact, they even got a gig showing a multimedia presentation of their various hoaxes, instead of a night or two in jail.
Related Topics: People in the news
June 20th, 2007 at 6:23 pm
I know it sounds really bad but there’s a super important lesson that all good speakers are aware of: Shock Value.
That being said, what’s ridiculous about the situation is that these guys will sometimes go unnoticed until well after the event they penetrated. Meaning, the audience isn’t that surprised by what they’re saying. I think it’s because the Yes Men are extremely well researched, so they know exactly how to pose as a particular business’s representatives…
I think jail would be a little excessive considering the crimes they’re addressing go unpunished every day (vis a vis, exploitation of villages by oil/chemical companies in India, funding of fake-science to ‘disprove’ global warming, etc.)
Besides, who’s the bigger criminal? The comedian who poses as someone else or the people who brush ecological and social injustice under the rug in the name of shareholder value?
It’s not going to be Americans devastated by the huge companies and SIG’s, it’s going to be the disenfranchised poor of the developing world.
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