Wired News: Shoplifting as Social Commentary
Yomango calls on anti-consumerism activists to “liberate” goods from stores in an effort to spread the ideals of brand-free living.
The movement started in 2002 in Spain, where thrifty followers staged choreographed shopping-mall stunts like looting clothes from one store and returning them to another or wearing them back for flash fashion shows.Actions carried out in the name of Yomango — Spanish slang for “I steal” — are coordinated and celebrated online. Thanks to a website that publishes accounts and videos of looting pranks, “franchises” of the movement have recently sprung up in countries including Argentina, Chile, Mexico and Germany, prompting a new wave of show-thefts.
