ABSTRACT
On November 12, 2008, some 100,000 copies of a fake July 4, 2009 edition of The New York Times were distributed around the corner of New York’s Time Square and a couple of other locations. The front page featured the headlines of Iraq War Ends and Nationalized Oil to Fund Climate Change Efforts complemented by a fake Monsanto advertisement which said: “Ladybugs for pest control: A ladybug can eat up to 50 pests every day, without harming plants-making this little insect as effective as any pesticide. Now shipping to all farmers.” The front page contained a spoofed motto: “All the news we hope to print,” and it was revealed later that Bertha Suttners and the Yes Men group claimed partial responsibility for this prank. Two university professors, Jacque Servin and Igor Vamos, wearing aprons which said New York Times, actually led a group of cameramen to the front door of the real New York Times and confronted the security guards about their fake identities. In the movie Yes Men Fix the World (2009), Jacque Servin and Igor Vamos, who wrote, produced, and directed the movie, further explained the reason to organize this action: “We need a really ambitious plan to show how real change will look . . . (we need to be) back on track of how it was before things fell apart and set our imagination free.” Later, they accepted interviews by the real journalists of CNBC, stating “We are trying to show how the world can be different.” Several European television stations reported on this event in the news. The readers of the fake newspapers were not angry at the producers; instead, some said: “It’s a dream newspaper, you wake up and all you want has come true.”
