Issue and Opponent: RUAG is one of Europe’s largest bullet manufacturers. The company is a state-owned Swiss weapons manufacturer that has notoriously exported bullets to Brazil for quite some time. However, the widely held belief was that developed democracies should take responsibility for global arms deals.
Dilemma Action: The Yes Men teamed up with the Swiss. Neumarkt Theatre in Zurich to call attention to alternatives to replace RUAG once and for all. The Yes Men posed as RUAG board members for a press conference where they announced the company would shift from manufacturing ammunition to manufacturing windmills. They launched a fake website where details from the press conference were released. RUAG would become RUAG Green. The invitations to the press conference were so well faked that local news agencies were taken in by the initiators of the campaign. Every link to the fake website went straight to the real RUAG website.
Outcomes: The action generated attention in the public though some members of the press were outraged by the deception. The action also reminded the Swiss of potential solutions to putting an end to two urgent issues, combating the climate crisis and armed violence, by switching from lethal technologies to green technologies. RUAG, however, had not officially decided to switch gears to manufacture windmills. A RUAG spokesperson states that since the invitation nor the related media releases came from RUAGa, she could not comment on them. RUAG did not take any legal action against this action. No concessions were obtained.