Unlike their American equivalents, such as The Yes Men, or even Michael Moore, the Czech pranksters display an admirable awareness that their story is much bigger than themselves.

Some of this is hilarious, and some appalling.

In the post–Morgan Spurlock era of stunt docs, the open-endedness is welcome.

Eat your heart out, Michael Moore.

It's a fascinating account, formulated and filmed by a pair of young Czech media students, of the way advertising and consumer manipulation can create a market for anything at all, even something that doesn't even exist.

Expect to squirm.

An examination of the Czech soul -- and, I guess, everybody's.

The filmmakers sometimes come off as smug jerks, but that doesn't mean they're wrong about the insidious impact of chain colonization, or the infernal effectiveness of something-for-nothing come-ons even in political pitches.

The film offers the obvious guilty pleasure of a highly successful practical joke, but it also pauses for a meditation on the power of marketing and empty promises.