July 13, 2009

b'eau pal from the yes men

Five years ago The Yes Men temporarily knocked a couple of billion dollars off of Dow Chemical’s market cap by hoaxing the BBC into this interview, where they claimed that Dow would take responsibility for the 1984 Bhopal disaster. (Dow acquired Union Carbide in 2001.)

Today, the Yes Men attempted a special delivery of a new brand of bottled water -- “B’eau Pal” to Dow Chemical’s London office.

Twenty Bhopal activists, including Sathyu Sarangi of the Sambhavna Clinic in Bhopal, showed up at Dow headquarters near London to find that the entire building had been vacated. … The attractive yet toxic product, developed by the Bhopal Medical Appeal and the Yes Men with pro-bono help from top London creative design firm Kennedy Monk, highlights Dow’s continued refusal to take responsibility for the disaster.

And because nothing shall go under-documented, here’s the making-of video re. the design of the bottle…