Mutuals do this

If you all don’t know about the Yes Men you really should check them out. They’re basically two generic looking white dudes who realized that by virtue of being generic looking white guys in Suits and being even moderately tech savvy in the early 2000s they could effectively con a wide variety of media outlets into thinking that they were legitimate representatives of whatever company they wanted, and utilized this platform mostly to critique and shame the companies they claimed to represent, and at the very least, severely publicly embarrass them, such as by offering to do a basic good thing and making the company go forward and publicly acknowledge something awful they caused AND openly admit that they refuse to take responsibility or to apologize of help, creating even more bad press for them and exposing them for the shit they are. Chaotic good shit.

Also, for the record, the survivors of the Bhopal disaster were largely grateful that they were bringing it back into the public consciousness.  Because my first thought was that they would be upset that he got their hopes up.