[lbo-talk] SurvivaBall saves managers from annoying climate change

[Sean Johnson Andrews]

the people they appear in front of aren't really the left-leaning indy film 
crowd.  and the people they fool are unlikely to make a big public thing out 
of it because in many cases they are the ones who invited them--and it would 
give publicity to the Yes Men's cause.  Except for suiing them or giving 
them a good spanking (or having them knocked off) it seems unlikely that 
their marks will willingly participate in giving them publicity.  It really 
is a great set up.  On the other hand, it makes it unlikely that they will 
make a big impact.  The DOW stunt a few years ago (and of course the GWBush 
website and the BLO) were pretty public, but stunts like this, where they 
actually appear in person, are fairly small.

I am more interested to know why the outlandish proposals they invent aren't 
so completely a-typical for the venues they choose.  In other words, why 
aren't people's BULLSHIT detectors going off when something like the 
SurvivaBall is presented in this forum.  Are there proposals that are 
similar?  Does every conference they attend have this level of the fantastic 
to it?  Or is it just a matter of totally believing (or wanting secretly to 
believe or at least quietly sitting through) what the speaker is saying 
based solely on the credentials after their name?  Totally speculation on my 
part either way.  I wish they'd hand out surveys afterwards.  Unlikely to 
yield any honest answers, but would be great nonetheless.

 -s

PS:  Here is the text of what they presented
http://www.halliburtoncontracts.com/about/hse.html

Surf the site a bit--I haven't found anything too outlandish, but it is fun 
nonetheless. The images of the guys in these suits is priceless:
http://www.halliburtoncontracts.com/about/history.html

 In reference to my own question, here were the responses from the audience 
(all of which indicate that they completely believe the presentation):

[One audience member asks how the device would fare against terrorism, 
another whether the array of embedded technologies might make the unit too 
cumbersome; a third brings up the issue of the unit's cost feasibility. Wolf 
and Goody assure the audience that these problems and others are being 
addressed.]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Michael Perelman" <michael at ecst.csuchico.edu>
To: <lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org>
Sent: Wednesday, May 10, 2006 8:11 PM
Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] SurvivaBall saves managers from annoying climate 
change


> The Yes Men are wonderful.  How do they get away with it after their movie 
> appeared?
> -- 
> Michael Perelman
> Economics Department
> California State University
> Chico, CA 95929
>
> Tel. 530-898-5321
> E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
> ___________________________________
> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
>