A look at the McDonald's Serious Games hoax
The shadowy tricksters behind last week's McDonald's hoax at the International Serious Games Events go by the revolutionary moniker the McDonald's Resistance Collective. MTV News follows the machinations that led up to the stunt, beginning with a case of mistaken identity related to Italian consortium Molleindustria's McVideoGame, who then coordinated with a French McDonald's protest group, who in turn enlisted the assistance of culture-jamming super-group The Yes Men. Got it?
Taking advantage of the event's lax security, the McDonald's Resistance Collective delivered their message: "We wanted people to imagine a real popular uprising as a possible and necessary thing. We wanted people to imagine that change. We wanted them to imagine it is coming from McDonald's." That sounds all well and good; however, not everyone in attendance was impressed with their choice of venue. One detractor said, "They have damaged a fledgling event that was organized by a university, not an 'evil' [corporation], personally embarrassed the organizers, potentially annoyed other keynote presenters and, when small companies like mine are struggling to gain contracts to pay our staff, hurt those that could perhaps help them the most. To that extent, I have to say that I think it was ill-judged."
Ouch! The Yes Men at WTO this was not. Like The Yes Men though, they're hoping to put a movie together about the stunt. Good luck with that, fellas.
