The leading figures were people in the Creel Commission. In fact, the main one, Edward Bernays, comes right out of the Creel Commission. He has a book that came out right afterwards called Propaganda. The term 'propaganda,' incidentally, did not have negative connotations in those days. “The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism PDF of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country.”—Edward Bernays, Propaganda.
Notable work (1923), (1928), (1945), (1955) Spouse(s) Children Doris Held, Parent(s) Ely Bernays Anna Freud Relatives (aunt) (uncle) (great-grandfather) Edward Louis Bernays (; German:; November 22, 1891 − March 9, 1995) was an Austrian-American pioneer in the field of and, referred to in his obituary as 'the father of public relations'. Bernays was named one of the 100 most influential Americans of the 20th century. He was the subject of a full length biography by called The Father of Spin (1999) and later an award-winning 2002 documentary for the by called. More recently, Bernays is noted as the great-uncle of Netflix co-founder,. His best-known campaigns include a 1929 effort to promote female smoking by branding cigarettes as feminist ' and his work for the connected with the in 1954. He worked for dozens of major American corporations including and, and for government agencies, politicians, and non-profit organizations. Of his many books, (1923) and (1928) gained special attention as early efforts to define and theorize the field of public relations.
Citing works of writers such as, and his own double uncle, he described the as irrational and subject to —and outlined how skilled practitioners could use and to control them in desirable ways. Further information: Bernays's famous corporate clients included, the, the, the of the, and innumerable other big names.
Bernays attempted to help Venida hair nets company to get women to wear their hair longer so they would use hairnets more. The campaign failed but did get government officials to require hairnets for some jobs. Bernays worked with for -brand bar soap.
The campaign successfully convinced people that Ivory soap was medically superior to other soaps. He also promoted soap through sculpting contests and floating contests because the soap floated better than competing products. Bernays used his uncle 's ideas to help convince the public, among other things, that bacon and eggs was the true all-American breakfast. In the 1930s, his campaign was designed to convince consumers that only were sanitary by linking the imagery of an overflowing cup with subliminal images of vaginas. He was publicity director for the.
Another selection from his papers, the Typescript on Publicizing the Physical Culture Industry, 1927: ', reveals Bernays' opinion of the leader of the physical culture movement. Yet another client, department store visionary, was the subject of the Typescript on a Boston Department Store Magnate. Bernays' Typescript on the Importance of Samuel Strauss: '1924 – Private Life' shows that the public relations counsel and his wife were fans of consumerism critic. Light's Golden Jubilee.
Main article: In October 1929, Bernays was involved in promoting Light's Golden Jubilee. The event, which spanned across several major cities in the US, was designed to celebrate the 50th anniversary of 's invention of the (though the light-bulb had been previously invented by ). The publicity elements of the Jubilee – including the special issuance of a US postage stamp and Edison's 're-creating' the invention of the light bulb for a nationwide radio audience – provided evidence of Bernays' love for big ideas and '. A follow-up event for the 75th anniversary, produced for by, was titled and broadcast on all four American TV networks on October 24, 1954. Political clients In 1924 Bernays set up a vaudeville 'pancake breakfast' for to change his stuffy image before the. Entertainers including, and the performed on the White House lawn. The event was widely reported by American newspapers, with the running the story under the headline 'President Nearly Laughs.'
A desperate consulted with Bernays a month before the. Bernays advised Hoover to create disunity within his opposition and to present an image of himself as an invincible leader. Bernays advised, in his candidacy for Mayor of New York City, on how to appear in front of different demographics. For example, he should tell Irish voters about his actions against the —and Italian voters about his plans to reform the. To Jews he should appear as a committed opponent of the Nazis.
He helped to name the, suggesting this name as preferable to the 'Committee for Unemployment'. During, Bernays advised the as well as the. He was chairman of the National Advisory Committee of the Third US War Loan, co-chairman of the Victory Book campaign, and part of the New York State Defense Council. In the 1950s, some of his ideas and vision helped portray India as the most democratic republic in Asia by having the adapt a Bill of Rights. Freedom of the press, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of assembly, and freedom of petition were added to the. Bernays reported turning down the, under the,.
Non-profit clients In 1920 Bernays worked on the first convention in Atlanta, Georgia. His campaign was considered successful because there was no violence at the convention. His campaign focused on the important contributions of to living in the. He later received an award from the NAACP for his contribution. Bernays also worked on behalf of many non-profit institutions and organizations.
These included, to name just a few, the (1926–1927), the (1928), the (1930–1931), the (1933), the (1934), the (1940), the (1942), and the (1954–1961). Freud In 1920, Bernays organized the publication of Freud's in the US, sending royalty money back to his uncle in Vienna. Freud turned down further offers at promotion, such as a possible lecture tour and an invitation to write 3,000-word newspaper columns, for $1,000 each, on topics such as 'The Wife's Mental Place in the Home' and 'What a Child Thinks About.' 'When a person would first meet Bernays,' says, 'it would not be long until Uncle Sigmund would be brought into the conversation.
His relationship with Freud was always in the forefront of his thinking and his counseling.' According to Irwin Ross, another writer, 'Bernays liked to think of himself as a kind of psychoanalyst to troubled corporations.' In addition to publicizing Freud's ideas, Bernays used his association with Freud to establish his own reputation as a thinker and theorist. Tobacco In 1927, Bernays worked briefly for, makers of cigarettes.
He pulled a stunt against the competing brand, which involved mocking the endorsements of opera singers who said Lucky Strikes were 'kind to your voice'., head of the, which made Lucky Strike, promptly hired Bernays away from Liggett and Myers. 'Girl in Red' advertisement for Lucky Strike; shot by, a photographer enlisted by Bernays to help popularize feminine thinness and cigarette smoking. When he started working for American Tobacco Company, Bernays was given the objective of increasing Lucky Strike sales among women, who, for the most part, had formerly avoided smoking.
The first strategy was to persuade women to smoke cigarettes instead of eating. Bernays began by promoting the itself, using photographers, artists, newspapers, and magazines to promote the special beauty of thin women. Medical authorities were found to promote the choice of cigarettes over sweets.
Home-makers were cautioned that keeping cigarettes on hand was a social necessity. Torches of Freedom. Main article: The first campaign succeeded; women smoked more cigarettes; American Tobacco Company brought in more revenue; and Lucky Strike led the market in growth.
But a taboo remained on women smoking in public. Bernays consulted with psychoanalyst, a student of Freud's, who reported to him that cigarettes represented 'torches of freedom' for women whose feminine desires were increasingly suppressed by their role in the modern world. Bernays organized a contingent of women to smoke cigarettes—'torches of freedom'—at the 1929 Easter Sunday parade in New York.
The event was carefully scripted to promote the intended message. Bernays wrote: Because it should appear as news with no division of the publicity, actresses should be definitely out. On the other hand, if young women who stand for feminism—someone from the Women's Party, say—could be secured, the fact that the movement would be advertised too, would not be bad. While they should be goodlooking, they should not be too 'model-y.' Three for each church covered should be sufficient. Of course they are not to smoke simply as they come down the church steps.
They are to join in the Easter parade, puffing away. The march went as planned, as did the ensuing publicity, with ripples of women smoking prominently across the country. Green Ball In 1934, Bernays was asked to deal with women's apparent reluctance to buy Lucky Strikes because their green and red package clashed with standard female fashions. When Bernays suggested changing the package to a neutral color, Hill refused, saying that he had already spent millions advertising the package. Bernays then endeavored to make green a fashionable color.
The centerpiece of his efforts was the Green Ball, a social event at the Waldorf Astoria, hosted. The pretext for the ball and its unnamed underwriter was that proceeds would go to charity. Famous society women would attend wearing green dresses.
Manufacturers and retailers of clothing and accessories were advised of the excitement growing around the color green. Intellectuals were enlisted to give highbrow talks on the theme of green. Before the ball had actually taken place, newspapers and magazines (encouraged in various ways by Bernays's office) had latched on to the idea that green was all the rage.
Modus operandi Throughout the job, Bernays concealed the fact that he was working for the American Tobacco Company, and in fact succeeded in keeping his own name out of the affair as well. Staff were instructed never to mention his name. Third parties were used, and various notable people received payments to promote smoking publicly as if on their own initiative. (Decades later, however, Bernays boasted about his role.) Bernays didn't smoke cigarettes himself, and persistently but unsuccessfully tried to induce his wife Doris to quit.
After his semi-retirement in the 1960s, he worked with the pro-health anti-smoking lawyer John Banzhaf's group, and supported other anti-smoking campaigns. United Fruit and Guatemala. See also: Bernays pioneered the public relations industry's use of and other to design its public persuasion campaigns: 'If we understand the mechanism and motives of the group mind, is it not possible to control and regiment the masses according to our will without their knowing about it? The recent practice of has proved that it is possible, at least up to a certain point and within certain limits.' He later called this scientific technique of opinion-molding the.
Bernays explained in his 1947 essay 'The Engineering of Consent': This phrase quite simply means the use of an engineering approach—that is, action based only on thorough knowledge of the situation and on the application of scientific principles and tried practices to the task of getting people to support ideas and programs. Bernays expanded on 's concept of, arguing that predictable elements could be manipulated for mass effects: But instead of a mind, universal literacy has given the common man a rubber stamp, a rubber stamp inked with advertising slogans, with editorials, with published scientific data, with the trivialities of tabloids and the profundities of history, but quite innocent of original thought. Each man's rubber stamp is the twin of millions of others, so that when these millions are exposed to the same stimuli, all receive identical imprints. The amazing readiness with which large masses accept this process is probably accounted for by the fact that no attempt is made to convince them that black is white. Instead, their preconceived hazy ideas that a certain gray is almost black or almost white are brought into sharper focus. Their prejudices, notions, and convictions are used as a starting point, with the result that they are drawn by a thread into passionate adherence to a given mental picture. Not only psychology but sociology played an important role for the public relations counsel, according to Bernays.
The individual is 'a cell organized into the social unit. Touch a nerve at a sensitive spot and you get an automatic response from certain specific members of the organism.' Philosophy Bernays' vision was of a society in which individuals' dangerous energies, the psychic and emotional energy associated with instinctual biological drives that Bernays viewed as inherently dangerous, could be harnessed and channeled by a corporate elite for economic benefit. Through the use of mass production, big business could fulfill the cravings of what Bernays saw as the inherently irrational and desire-driven masses, simultaneously securing the niche of a mass-production economy (even in peacetime), as well as sating what he considered to be dangerous animal urges that threatened to tear society apart if left unquelled. Bernays touted the idea that the 'masses' are driven by factors outside their conscious understanding, and therefore that their minds can and should be manipulated by the capable few. 'Intelligent men must realize that propaganda is the modern instrument by which they can fight for productive ends and help to bring order out of chaos.'
The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an which is the true ruling power of our country.We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society.In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of or business, in our social conduct or our thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons.who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind.
9–10 Propaganda was portrayed as the only alternative to chaos. One way Bernays reconciled manipulation with liberalism was his claim that the human masses would inevitably succumb to manipulation—and therefore the good propagandists could compete with the evil, without incurring any marginal moral cost. In his view, 'the minority which uses this power is increasingly intelligent, and works more and more on behalf of ideas that are socially constructive.' Unlike some other early public relations practitioners, Bernays advocated centralization and planning. Calls his 1945 book Take Your Place at the Peace Table 'a clear appeal for a form of mild corporate socialism.'
Bernays also drew on the ideas of the French writer, the originator of, and of, who promoted similar ideas in the anglophone world in his book. Bernays refers to these two names in his writings. Trotter, who was a head and neck surgeon at, London, read Freud's works, and it was he who introduced, whom he lived and worked with, to Freud's ideas. When Freud fled Vienna for London after the, Trotter became his personal physician. Trotter, and became key members of the Freudian psychoanalysis movement in England.
They would develop the field of, largely associated with the, where many of Freud's followers worked. Thus ideas of and psychoanalysis came together in London around. Recognition and legacy External video, Much of Bernays' reputation today stems from his persistent public relations campaign to build his own reputation as 'America's No. 1 Publicist'. During his active years, many of his peers in the industry were offended by Bernays' continuous self-promotion. According to, 'Bernays was a brilliant person who had a spectacular career, but, to use an old-fashioned word, he was a braggart.' Bernays attracted positive and negative attention for his grand statements about the role of public relations in society.
Reviewers praised (1923) as a pioneering study of the importance of something called. (1928) drew more criticism for its advocacy of mass manipulation. In the 1930s, his critics became more harsh. As the leading figure in public relations and a notorious advocate of 'propaganda', Bernays was compared to European fascists such as. (Bernays himself wrote in his 1965 autobiography that Goebbels read and used his books.) Rather than retreating from the spotlight, Bernays continued to play up his ideas—for example, stating in a 1935 speech to the Financial Advertisers Association that strong men (including publicists) should become human symbols to lead the masses. On other occasions he tempered this message with the idea that, while propaganda is inevitable, the democratic system allows a pluralism of propaganda, while fascist systems offer only a single official propaganda. At the same time, Bernays was praised for his apparent success, wisdom, foresight, and influence as an originator of public relations.
While opinions ranged negative to positive, there was widespread agreement that propaganda had a powerful effect on the public mind. According to John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton, in a published review of Larry Tye's biography of Bernays: It is impossible to fundamentally grasp the social, political, economic and cultural developments of the past 100 years without some understanding of Bernays and his professional heirs in the public relations industry. PR is a 20th-century phenomenon, and Bernays—widely eulogized as the 'father of public relations' at the time of his death in 1995—played a major role in defining the industry's philosophy and methods. As a result, his legacy remains a highly contested one, as evidenced by Adam Curtis' 2002 BBC documentary. Publications Books.
(1917, co-author). (New York: Boni and Liveright, 1923). A Public Relations Counsel (1927). An Outline of Careers: A Practical Guide to Achievement by Thirty-Eight Eminent Americans (1927).
Verdict of Public Opinion on Propaganda (1927). (New York: Horace Liveright.
1928). This Business of Propaganda (1928). Universities—Pathfinders in Public Opinion (1937). Careers for Men: A Practical Guide to Opportunity in Business, Written by Thirty-Eight Successful Americans (1939). Speak Up for Democracy: What You Can Do—A Practical Plan of Action for Every American Citizen (New York: The Viking Press, 1940).
Future of Private Enterprise in the Post-War World (1942). Democratic Leadership in Total War (1943).
Psychological Blueprint for the Peace—Canada, U.S.A. (1944). (1945). Your Place at the Peace Table. What You Can Do to Win a Lasting United Nations Peace (New York: The Gerent Press, 1945). What the British Think of Us: A Study of British Hostility to America and Americans and Its Motivation, with Recommendations for Improving Anglo-American Relations (1950, co-author with his wife Doris Fleischman). (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1955)(contributor).
Your Future in Public Relations (1961). Biography of an Idea: Memoirs of Public Relations Counsel (1965).
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Case for Reappraisal of U.S. Overseas Information Policies and Programs (Special Study) (1970), by Edward L. Bernays and Burnet Hershey (editors) Selected articles. ', The Bookman, April 1927, pp. 150–155. ', American Journal of Sociology 33(6), May 1928. ', Journal of Marketing 6(3), January 1942.
'Attitude Polls—Servants or Masters?' , Public Opinion Quarterly 9(3), Autumn 1945. ', Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 250, March 1947. ', Industrial and Labor Relations Review 1(1), October 1947. ', Business History Review 45(3), Autumn 1971. See also.
References.