As a society, we have become apathetic towards disaster. This is not to say that we do not feel the effects of devastating events that occur, rather, we react and move on until the next one inevitably hits. Dow Chemical, 2004 by the Yes Men is an interrogative artwork that explores this issue alongside a larger framework of hegemony, capitalism, and exploitation. The work responds to one of the greatest industrial disasters in Bhopal, India in 1984 which killed over 2,000 people immediately and injured half a million more. The Yes Men revisited the disaster twenty years later by staging an interview on BBC with a fake Dow Chemical representative and presenting a false plan for compensation of billions of dollars to those affected. The company later refuted these claims which fanned the flames and prompted increased criticism.

The work employs democratic strategies because it was televised and thus had a wide and diverse audience around the world. In addition, it called into question the responsibility of an influential company and the cost at which that reputation is bought through the hegemonic structures of society. The work presents a potential outcome of the situation, which then prompts the viewer to confront their own response to disaster. Dow Chemical thus allows the viewer the agency to think for themselves about the systems in place in society and how they impact the way the world functions.