His name was Edward L. Bernays. He was the nephew of Sigmund Freud. He was born in Vienna on November 22, 1891 and died at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts on March 9, 1995 at the age of 103.
Before the early 20th century, marketers thought of people as rational beings. They thought that all they had to do was reason logically with the public if they wanted to sell their product. Freud’s theories pointed out that everyone also possessed an unconscious mind filled with hidden instincts and emotions such as sex, security, aggression, and survival. This unconscious mind greatly influences how people behave.
Edward Bernays was raised in the United States. He spent much of the summer of his youth vacationing in Austria and learning firsthand some of the theories of his famous uncle. He used what he learned to formulate the most useful corporate alien theory on the planet. This theory is called “Public Relations” by some and “Spin” by others. You and I have been influenced by the spin for decades if we have lived in any of the so called “civilized” nations of the world.
Some of Bernays’ campaigns actually changed the behavior of most Americans. In the mid-1920s, a company called Beechnut Packing wanted to improve its sales of bacon. Bernays, instead of creating a campaign to put the bacon on sale, created a new and unprecedented use for the product. He asked the medical community if it was better for people to have a big breakfast or a light breakfast. The doctors agreed that a large breakfast was best. Breakfast at that time consisted of toast, coffee, and juice. Bernays added bacon and eggs to this breakfast. He started a marketing campaign touting the medical benefits of a hearty breakfast that included bacon and eggs. To this day, an “all American” breakfast includes bacon and eggs.
Another of his campaigns was for the American Tobacco Company. In the mid-1920s, smoking was common in the United States, and cigarettes were the most popular form of tobacco. However, women were not allowed to smoke in public. In 1928, the American Tobacco Company hired Bernays to try to change this. She consulted with a psychoanalyst AA Brill, who suggested that what women really want is the freedom to do the same things that men do. So, during the 1929 Easter Parade in New York, Bernays hired debutantes to march in the parade pretending to be suffragettes. At her signal, all these women lit a cigarette. She had photographers waiting to mark the event and she referred to the cigarettes as “liberty torches.” It seemed that anyone who was against women smoking was also against women’s liberation. Bernays saw to it that this event was publicized throughout the world. Smoking among women everywhere skyrocketed when they began to associate cigarettes with freedom.
This is how Bernays felt about public relations and democracy:
The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in a democratic society. Those who manipulate this invisible mechanism of society constitute an invisible government that is the true ruling power of our country.
Democracies are not the only forms of government that use bias. Dr. Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s propaganda minister, kept copies of Bernays’s books in his extensive “mind control” library. Bernays never had Hitler as a client, but some techniques from his books were used in the Nazi campaign against the Jews.
During his later years, Bernays saw how Public Relations was being misused today. On his 100th birthday in 1991, she said, “Public relations today is horrible. Any fool, any moron, any idiot can call himself a public relations professional.” He really wanted the science of Public Relations to be used for the good of humanity.
To use Spin’s science, you need enough money to run a successful campaign and media approval. Today, there are only six or seven media corporations that control most of the news and entertainment that the public watches. Governments have enough power to approve or deny what the public sees. The media only misrepresents government policies that are considered “patriotic” and “politically correct.” Large corporations, due to their massive wealth, buy the spin necessary to make their products stand out. Corporate foreign leaders determine what is good for the people.
During the Viet-Nam war, the American people were constantly told by the media that if the communists won in Viet-Nam, democracy would be lost. The communists won and nothing happened. There were more than 58,000 Americans killed, 303,000 wounded, and more than 3,800,000 Vietnamese killed. Many Americans still believe that the media go around and think that the war was necessary.
The ongoing Iraq war has the government once again launching a Public Relations campaign. Now the word “terrorism” is used constantly in the media as a threat to “freedom.” According to the media, terrorists seem to be everywhere. Opposing this war could get you labeled a traitor. You may be called a “conspiracy theorist” if you question the government’s explanation of the events leading up to this war.
Elections are handled exclusively by the media. The candidate who invests the most money or carries out the best Public Relations campaign wins. How qualified is the candidate? Nobody knows. The government can save a lot of electoral expenses simply by appointing Paris Hilton as president and Jay Leno as vice president. This result would be equivalent to that of the actual elected candidates in the next election. The people are controlled by spins initiated by powerful corporate aliens who control the media. The twist requires that a candidate always look good, but ignores the candidate’s actual ability to do their job efficiently. No candidate, no matter how qualified, can win without a lot of money to buy advertising campaigns. Candidates are just faces and personalities distracting the masses and may actually have very few of the skills necessary to run the government. It seems that there is an “invisible government” as Bernays said that is the true ruling power.
To have a true election, the media must be kept out of the electoral process. I think this is possible, but it won’t happen anytime soon for obvious reasons. Logic, not unconscious impulse, should guide our choices.
Not all people succumb to the twist. The more a person thinks as an individual, the less likely it is that his ideas will be affected by media campaigns. So while most people today believe, because of the media, that there is a terrorist lurking around every corner, some still question this premise. Being aware of how your unconscious mind can influence your thoughts can make you do more research than the media tells you before coming to a conclusion.
The recent movie “Thank You for Smoking”, now on DVD, is an eye-opening and entertaining article covering the subject of effect. A book that covers more of Bernays’ campaigns and Public Relations in general is “The Father of the Spin: Edward L. Bernays and the Birth of Public Relations” by Larry Tye.