Activists/artivists/culture jammers The Yes Men released an ingenious new parody this morning. Called “Three Strikes, You’re In!” the spoof campaign announces a partnership between the NYPD and McDonald’s meant to reward law-abiding New Yorkers who put up with the police department’s controversial stop-and-frisk policy, which, according to recently released data, targeted a record 684,330 people in 2011, 87 percent of them black or Latino.
The deal? Anyone who gets stopped and frisked three times without incident can receive a FREE HAPPY MEAL!!! All you have to do is fill out a voucher with the officer’s badge number, as well as the date and location, of each stop and frisk. (I’m sure the officers would be very obliging.)
“Surprisingly, a large number of New Yorkers who were stopped and frisked turned out to be innocent,” says a faux McDonald’s spokesman in the hilarious video announcing the campaign.
Meanwhile, a real McDonald’s representative denied the existence of the program to Colorlines.org. “Three Strikes, You’re In!” launched this morning with a complete website where visitors could read about the campaign and obtain vouchers, but sadly, it’s already been taken down.
Editor’s note: The video we originally posted was deleted from Vimeo at 5:50pm EST today, but we discovered the same video on Daily Motion and posted that above.
Well done Yes Men.
Brilliant. Love the Yes Men.