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YS: How has your background in law helped with your brand of activism? She has inspired young left-leaning people in the US to come to DC and make change for the better. And luckily, now Warren is becoming less of the exception and more of the norm. In fact, Elizabeth Warren was the first politician I really believed was a regular person with our best interest at heart and that’s what really drove me to come to DC and do that kind of work. I collaborated with Senator Warren to do a couple of videos in character as well. She inspired all of that and this career path led me to work on the issue of forced arbitration, which eventually led to Monopoly Man.
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IM: When I was working as a legal fellow for Senator Warren, I got interested in the issues of consumer protection, economic justice. YS: What got you started on this project? And nothing has got the kind of attention and interest as these kinds of stunts.” “I am a policy lawyer here in DC, I do very serious types of advocacies as well. The point for me is to get some attention so that I can talk to reporters and the media about the real reason I am there and get the message out there. Monopoly Man tends to work a lot for these corporate CEOs but I have also done other types of characters ( for instance when Mark Zuckerberg had to testify, Madrigal dressed up as a Russian troll). It’s because a lot of Americans, in particular, don’t pay attention to these hearings, so I go to the ones I believe deserve more attention.Īnd I always try to match the character to the hearing. IM: I strategically pick hearings I want to highlight. YS: Some critics have called it a PR/creative stunt – what’s your response to that? But many of us are using it to advance causes. Some people are inevitably going to use it to hurt people. There’s a thing about internet culture that brings out the worst in humans and there’s a lot of it that brings out the best in us too. You can use all of the tools that he uses with a more inspiring approach. He has made a lot of people reconsider the norms that we have in the US and unfortunately, he is doing all these things with a not-so-good purpose in mind. I think he has made a lot of people laugh, even if we haven’t wanted to. IM: You can use any tool either way, right? For example, (US President) Donald Trump has shown the power of entertainment and of breaking rules. Trolls are looked down upon, so what can the internet learn from your brand? YS: The entire Monopoly Man act could be seen as a troll of sorts. “The lawmakers might be yelling at the CEOs for 5 minutes during the hearing but they are going to turn around and they are going to pass legislation favourable to the companies because, at the end of the day, they rely on those corporate donations to get re-elected.”Īlso read: Meet the brains behind the viral egg photo: 19-year-old Indian-origin marketing strategist Ishan Goel With the Monopoly Man imagery, it’s about trying to drive home the ‘money and politics’ issue. I like to take away from their grandstanding and make a mockery of the hearing itself. A lot of times, members of Congress call these hearings, bring in rich CEOs down to testify and have their 5 minutes of yelling at them, but then they would not pass any legislation or reforms to help consumers. IM: Definitely, the objective is to steal some of the spotlight. YS: What’s the goal with dressing up and showing up on camera during these hearings? Once in the room, it’s a matter of being aware of where the camera is. Usually, I would send someone else to stand in the line for me so that I am not too conspicuous. The trick is just getting there very early. I try to keep an eye on hearings that are happening in the Capitol. These hearings are pretty much open to the public (a fact that Madrigal admits not many people outside of DC would know). IM: Since the first Monopoly Man stunt, I have been showing up at hearings whenever there’s a CEO in town. YS: How did you actually score the spot at the Congressional hearing (right behind Sundar Pichai?) Around the same time, there was a Senate hearing on the Equifax data breach, and I came up with the idea of going to the hearing in character and see if I could get into the shot. We talked about someone dressing up like the Monopoly Man and going to an event on Capitol Hill.