Asahikawa American English Conversation School
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Edward Bernays and the Art of Public Relations
Edward Louis Bernays was born on November 22, 1891 in Vienna Austria, to Jewish parents. His father Ely Bernays, was the brother of Martha Bernays, who was married to Sigmund Freud the world famous founder of psychoanalysis. Therefore, Edward Bernays was Dr. Freud乫s nephew.
Edward Bernays乫 uncle, Dr. Sigmund Freud, had put forward a New Theory of Human Nature. He said that he had discovered, primitive sexual and aggressive forces, hidden deep inside the minds of all human beings. Forces which if not controlled, would lead individuals and societies into chaos and destruction. Edward Bernays was the first person to take his uncle乫s ideas, and use them to manipulate the masses. He showed American corporations, for the first time, how they could make people want things they didn乫t need, by linking mass produced goods to their subconscious desires. Out of this, would come a new political idea, of how to control the masses. By satisfying peoples乫 innermost selfish desires, one made them happy, and thus docile. It was the start of the all-consuming self, which has come to dominate our world today.
In 1913 Bernays started his career as a press agent, counseling theaters, concerts and ballet. One of his biggest clients was the legendary opera singer, Enrico Caruso. In 1914 when World War One broke out in Europe, American President Theodore Roosevelt asked Bernays and other people, to form the Committee on Public Information, in order to influence public opinion towards supporting American participation in World War I. In other words, create propaganda to convince the American people that sending American soldiers to Europe to fight in the war, was in America乫s best interest.
In 1918 when the war ended, Edward Bernays, then 26 years old, was asked by the new American President Woodrow Wilson, to accompany him to the International Peace Conference in Paris France. At the meeting, the idea of 乬Making the World Safe for Democracy乭 was the big slogan of the day. President Wilson乫s enthusiastic reception in Paris, astounded Bernays and the other American propagandists who had portrayed Woodrow Wilson as a liberator of the people, and a man who could create a new world, in which the individual would be free. They had made him into a hero of the masses.
When Bernays got back to America after the Paris Peace Conference, he began to wonder if the same type of mass persuasion might be possible during peace time as well. However, the word 乬propaganda乭 had attained a bad meaning during the war, so Eddie Bernays came up with a new word for it, The Council on Public Relations. Bernays set himself up as a Public Relations Councilor in a small office near Broadway, in New York City. It was the first time that the term 乬PR Councilor乭 had ever been used.
Bernays believed that there is a lot more going on in human decision making, than just the clear presentation of accurate information about the product or service. He believed that businesses should play to peoples乫 irrational emotions, in order to convince them that they must buy a company乫s product or service. His first big success was persuading women that it was OK to smoke in public. At that time, in the early 20th Century, men had made it taboo for women to smoke in public. George Hill, the president of the American Tobacco Corporation, asked Eddie Bernays if he could find a way to break this taboo, and encourage women to smoke in public. George Hill thought his company could double the number of its customers in this way.
Edward Bernays consulted with his uncle, who told him what cigarettes mean to women. The psychoanalyst told Bernays that the cigarette represented male sexual power, and that if he could find a way to link cigarettes to women, as a challenge to male power, they would begin smoking in public.
Every year, New York City held an Easter乫s Day Parade to which thousands of people came. Bernays decided to stage an event there. He persuaded a group of rich debutants, to hide cigarettes under their clothes, and join the parade. Then, at a given signal from him, they were to light up the cigarettes dramatically. He then told the press, that he had heard a rumor, that a group of suffragettes were going to protest the unequal rights of women, by lighting up cigarettes which they called 乬torches of freedom乭.
Edward Bernays knew that this would cause a controversy, and that all of the newspaper photographers would be there to capture the moment, so he was ready with a propaganda slogan which was; TORCHES OF FREEDOM. The idea worked exactly as planned, and the next day the photographs and story were in not just the New York newspapers, but in newspapers all across America, and around the world.
After that, the sales of cigarettes to women began to rise rapidly, because Bernays had made them socially acceptable. In the minds of the women who began smoking in public, they thought of themselves as being more powerful and independent. An idea that still persists to this very day.
Bernays proved that it is possible to make people behave irrationally if you can link products to their desires and feelings. The idea that smoking actually made women more powerful and independent, was completely irrational, but it did make them FEEL more independent and powerful. This means that irrelevant objects can become powerful emotional symbols, of how you want yourself to be seen by others.
Eddie Bernays saw that the way to sell a product or service, was not to sell it to your intellect, not that you should buy this automobile because it is the best built and will last a long time, but that you will FEEL BETTER ABOUT YOURSELF, if you have this automobile.
I know exactly what he means. About three years ago, I bought a new automobile. A Toyota NOAH YY. I didn't really NEED a new car. The one that I had, a Toyota Corolla MX, worked just fine. In fact, the engine had only about 55,000 kilometers on it, after more than 10 years of ownership. This car can still be used for many many years by me, or by somebody else. Somebody else got my car, because I didn't WANT it anymore.
I WANTed an automobile that can be used as a CAMPING CAR, as well as a; get-around-the-crowded-city-streets kind of car. I found both in the Toyota NOAH YY. The main reason that I was even aware of this new van, is because my Toyota Dealer, a friend of the clan, sent me a full color brochure at just the right time. Just before my 侾侽擭栚偺幵専 was due.
Here comes the basic decision about whether or not to keep your old car, or buy a new car. The new car that I saw in the photographs of the full color pamphlet, made me CURIOUS enough, to drive on over to the dealership, and take a look at the new model van. When I met the new automobile, face to face, I liked it immediately. WHY? Because it had everything that I WANTed in an automobile.
Three years later, I have no regrets. It has been a true pleasure to drive, and it also provides a place to sleep at night. Especially convenient, if you are staying overnight at one of the many Road Side Rest Stations 摴偺墂, which are located all over HOKKAIDO.
Did buying this new van make me feel good about myself? I would say, YES it did. And still does today.
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