Cover of Bernays' 1928 book, Propaganda.

Edward Bernays (November 22, 1891 – March 9, 1995) nephew of psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, was considered the father of the field of public relations. Bernays was one of the first to attempt to manipulate public opinion using the psychology of the subconscious. He felt this manipulation was necessary in society, which he felt was irrational and dangerous. He was named as one of the 1,000 most influential Americans of the 20th century by Life magazine.[1] Image File history File links Download high resolution version (489x796, 18 KB) Summary reproduction of front cover of book Screenshot from scan. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (489x796, 18 KB) Summary reproduction of front cover of book Screenshot from scan. ... The front cover of the 1928 edition The father of Propaganda, Edward Bernays defined the profession of counsel on public relations as a practicing social scientist whose competence is like that of the industrial engineer, the management engineer, or the investment counselor in their respective fields. ... November 22 is the 326th day (327th on leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1891 (MDCCCXCI) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar). ... March 9 is the 68th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (69th in Leap years). ... 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Sigmund Freud (born Sigismund Schlomo Freud) May 6, 1856 – September 23, 1939; (IPA pronunciation: [] in German, [] in English) was a Jewish-Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist who co-founded the psychoanalytic school of psychology. ... Public relations (PR) is the business, organizational, philanthropic, or social function of managing communication between an organization and its audiences. ... This article does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... In philosophy: Irrationality In music: Irrational rhythm In economics: Irrational exuberance In mathematics: Irrational number Proof that e is irrational Quadratic irrational List of integrals of irrational functions See also: rational This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same... A cover of Life Magazine from 1911 Life has been the name of two notable magazines published in the United States. ...

Overview

Born in Vienna, Bernays was both a blood nephew and a nephew-in-law to Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis. Bernays's public relations efforts helped popularize Freud's theories in the United States. Bernays also pioneered the PR industry's use of psychology and other social sciences 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 propaganda has proved that it is possible, at least up to a certain point and within certain limits." (Propaganda, 2005 ed., p. 71.) He called this scientific technique of opinion-molding the "engineering of consent." Vienna (German: , see also other names) is the capital of Austria, and also one of the nine States of Austria. ... Sigmund Freud (born Sigismund Schlomo Freud) May 6, 1856 – September 23, 1939; (IPA pronunciation: [] in German, [] in English) was a Jewish-Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist who co-founded the psychoanalytic school of psychology. ... Psychoanalysis is a family of psychological theories and methods based on the work of Sigmund Freud. ... The front cover of the 1928 edition The father of Propaganda, Edward Bernays defined the profession of counsel on public relations as a practicing social scientist whose competence is like that of the industrial engineer, the management engineer, or the investment counselor in their respective fields. ...

One of Bernays' favorite techniques for manipulating public opinion was the indirect use of "third party authorities" to plead for his clients' causes. "If you can influence the leaders, either with or without their conscious cooperation, you automatically influence the group which they sway," he said. In order to promote sales of bacon, for example, he conducted a survey of physicians and reported their recommendation that people eat hearty breakfasts. He sent the results of the survey to 5,000 physicians, along with publicity touting bacon and eggs as a hearty breakfast. An example of uncooked streaky bacon. Bacon is defined as any of certain cuts of meat taken from the sides, back or belly of a pig that is cured and possibly smoked. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

Bernays also drew upon his uncle Freud's psychoanalytic ideas for the benefit of commerce in order to promote, by indirection, commodities as diverse as cigarettes, soap and books. Psychoanalysis is a family of psychological theories and methods based on the work of Sigmund Freud. ... Commerce is the trading of something of economic value such as goods, services, information or money between two or more entities. ... In computer programming, indirection is the ability to reference something using a name, reference, or container instead of the value itself. ... A lit filtered cigarette will burn to ash from one end. ... This article is about the computer protocol. ... [1]#redirect Book ...

PR industry historian Scott Cutlip describes Bernays as "perhaps public relations' most fabulous and fascinating individual, a man who was bright, articulate to excess, and most of all, an innovative thinker and philosopher of this vocation that was in its infancy when he opened his office in New York in June 1919."

The 2002 BBC documentary, The Century of the Self, describes Bernays as "undemocratic", and a primary contributor to an unnecessary force of social repression. The Century of the Self is an acclaimed documentary by filmmaker Adam Curtis released in 2002. ...

Philosophy And Public Relations

His papers, just recently opened, contain a wealth of information on the founding of the field in the twenties. In fact, Bernays' The Biography of an Idea: Memoirs of Public Relations Counsel Edward L. Bernays (1965) contains one of the very best overviews of the decade. Many of the essays selected for the Coolidge-Consumerism collection from the Bernays Papers were written as early drafts for The Biography of an Idea.

Bernays, who pursued his calling in New York City 1919-1963, styled himself a "Public Relations Counsel." He had very pronounced views on the differences between what he did and what advertising men did. A pivotal figure in the orchestration of elaborate corporate advertising campaigns and multi-media consumer spectacles, he nevertheless is among those listed in the Acknowledgments section of the seminal government social science study Recent Social Trends in the United States (1933).

On a par with Bernays as the most sought-after public relations counsel of the decade was Ivy Ledbetter Lee, among whose chief clients were John D. Rockefeller, Sr., Bethlehem Steel, Armour & Company, and the Pennsylvania Railroad. Lee is represented in the Coolidge-Consumerism collection by Publicity: Some of the Things It Is and Is Not (1925). Ivy Ledbetter Lee (July 16, 1877 – November 9, 1934) is considered by some to be the founder of modern public relations, although the title could also be held by Edward Bernays. ... John Davison Rockefeller, Sr. ...

Bernays, however, was a philosopher of promotion, and it was probably that philosophical quality, evident in his writings and speeches, as well as the sheer exuberant creativity and intelligence of his publicity blitzes, which enabled him to impart to his own efforts and to the field more generally a sense of stature, scope and profundity.

The belief that propaganda and news were legitimate tools of his business, and his ability to offer philosophical justifications for these beliefs that ultimately embraced the whole democratic way of life, in Bernays' mind set his work in public relations apart from what ad men did. The Bernays essays A Public Relations Counsel States His Views (1927) and This Business of Propaganda (1928) show that Bernays regarded advertising men as special pleaders, merely paid to persuade people to accept an idea or commodity. The public relations counsel, on the other hand, he saw as an Emersonian-like creator of events that dramatized new concepts and perceptions, and even influenced the actions of leaders and groups in society. The front cover of the 1928 edition The father of Propaganda, Edward Bernays defined the profession of counsel on public relations as a practicing social scientist whose competence is like that of the industrial engineer, the management engineer, or the investment counselor in their respective fields. ...

Bernays' magisterial, philosophical touch is in evidence in Manipulating Public Opinion (1928) when he writes: "This is an age of mass production. In the mass production of materials a broad technique has been developed and applied to their distribution. In this age, too, there must be a technique for the mass distribution of ideas." Yet he recognized the potential danger in so grand a scheme and in This Business of Propaganda (1928), as elsewhere, sounded the great caveat that adds a grace note to his ambitious vision: a public relations counsel "must never accept a retainer or assume a position which puts his duty to the groups herepresents above his duty to society."

Propaganda

In Propaganda, his most important book, Bernays argued that the manipulation of public opinion was a necessary part of democracy:

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 of society constitute an invisible government 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 politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical 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.

Notwithstanding such seeming probity, articles in the journals of opinion, such as the one by Marlen Pew, Edward L. Bernays Critiqued as "Young Machiavelli of Our Time", and the debate between Bernays and Everett Dean Martin in Forum, Are We Victims of Propaganda?, depicted Bernays negatively. He and other publicists were often attacked as propagandists and deceptive manipulators, who represented special interests against the public interest and covertly contrived events that secured coverage as news stories, free of charge, for their clients instead of securing attention for them through paid advertisements. Democracy (literally rule by the people, from the Greek demos, people, and kratos, rule[1]) is a form of government. ... Trinomial name Homo sapiens sapiens Linnaeus, 1758 Humans, or human beings, are bipedal primates belonging to the mammalian species Homo sapiens (Latin: wise man or knowing man) under the family Hominidae (the great apes). ... Politics is the process by which groups make decisions. ... Ethics is a general term for what is often described as the science (study) of morality. In philosophy, ethical behavior is that which is good or right. ...

Bernays' brilliance for promotion in this vein emerges clearly when one reads, in the Bernays Typescript on Publicizing the New Dodge Cars, 1927-1928: "Two Sixes", the story of how he managed to secure newspaper coverage for the radio programs he developed to promote the Dodge Brothers' new six-cylinder cars. The Bernays Typescript on Publicizing the Fashion Industry, 1925-27: "Hats and Stockings" and the Bernays Typescript on Art in the Fashion Industry, 1923-1927, reveal a similar flair for consumer manipulation in the arena of fashion.

Tie-In

As is evident from the description of his campaign to publicize the Dodge cars, Bernays had a particular gift for the marketing strategy called the "tie-up" or "tie-in" -- in which one venue or opportunity or occasion for promoting a consumer product, for example, radio advertising, is linked to another, say, newspaper advertising, and even, at times, to a third, say a department store exhibition salesroom featuring the item, and possibly even a fourth, such as an important holiday, for example, Thrift Week.

A corporate booster who espoused a strong code of professional ethics, he emphasized the importance of doing nothing that would harm the social fabric. In addition to famous corporate clients, such as the Dodge Brothers, Proctor & Gamble, the American Tobacco Company, Cartier, Inc., Best Foods, CBS, the United Fruit Company, General Electric, Dodge Motors, the fluoridationists of the Public Health Service, Knox-Gelatin, and innumerable other big names, Bernays also worked on behalf of many civic-minded and non-profit institutions and organization. These included, to name just a few, the Committee on Publicity Methods in Social Work (1926-1927), the Jewish Mental Health Society (1928), the Book Publishers Research Institute (1930-1931), the New York Infirmary for Women and Children (1933), the Committee for Consumer Legislation (1934), the Friends of Danish Freedom and Democracy (1940), the Citywide Citizens' Committee on Harlem (1942), and the National Multiple Sclerosis Society (1954-1961). For the U.S. Government, he worked for the President's Emergency Committee on Employment (1930-1932) and President Calvin Coolidge. Alternate use: Dodge (disambiguation) Categories: Automobile stubs | Corporation stubs | Automobiles | Car companies of the United States | Chrysler | Corporations sponsoring NASCAR drivers ... Procter & Gamble Co. ... The American Tobacco Company was founded in 1890 by J. B. Duke as a merger between a number of tobacco manufacturers including Allen and Ginter. ... hello ... Hellmanns and Best Foods are brand names that are used for the same line of mayonnaise and other food products. ... CBS is one of the largest radio and television networks in the United States. ... The United Fruit Company (1899–1970) was a major American corporation that traded tropical fruit (primarily bananas and pineapples) grown in Third World plantations and sold in the United States and Europe. ... GE redirects here. ... 1917 Dodge Brothers Touring car. ... This article needs cleanup. ... The United States Public Health Service was founded first by President John Adams as a loose network of hospitals to support the health of American seamen. ... John Calvin Coolidge, Jr. ...

The amusing Bernays Typescript on Public Relations Work and Politics, 1924: "Breakfast with Coolidge" shows that President Coolidge too was among his clients. Bernays was hired to improve Coolidge's image before the 1924 presidential election.

Another selection from his papers, the Typescript on Publicizing the Physical Culture Industry, 1927: "Bernarr Macfadden", reveals Bernays' opinion of the leader of the physical culture movement. Yet another client, department store visionary Edward A. Filene, 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 Samuel Strauss.

Campaigns

Some of the Campaigns Bernays worked on:

• In the 1920's, working for the American Tobacco Company, he persuaded women's rights marchers in New York City to hold up Lucky Strike cigarettes as symbolic "Torches of Freedom."[2]
• Bernays once engineered a "pancake breakfast" with vaudevillians for the icy Calvin Coolidge in what is widely considered one of the first overt media acts for a president.
• Bernays used his Uncle Sigmund Freud's ideas to help convince the public, among other things, that bacon and eggs was the true all-American breakfast.

[3] The term women’s rights typically refers to freedoms inherently possessed by women and girls of all ages, which may be institutionalized or ignored and/or illegitimately suppressed by law or custom in a particular society. ...

• In October 1929, Bernays was involved in promoting "Light's Golden Jubilee." The event, which spanned across several major cities in the U.S., was designed to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Thomas Edison's invention of the light-bulb {note: the light-bulb was in fact invented by Joseph Swan}. The publicity elements of the Jubilee -- including the special issuance of a U.S. postage stamp and Edison's "re-creating" the discovery of the light bulb for a nationwide radio audience -- provided evidence of Bernays' love for big ideas and "ballyhoo."

Beyond his contributions to these famous and powerful clients, Bernays revolutionized public relations by combining traditional press agentry with the techniques of psychology and sociology to create what one writer has called "the science of ballyhoo." Joseph Swan Sir Joseph Wilson Swan (October 31, 1828 – May 27, 1914) was an English physicist and chemist, most famous for the development of the light bulb. ...

Discussion

Much of Bernays's 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's continuous self-promotion. According to Cutlip, "Bernays was a brilliant person who had a spectacular career, but, to use an old-fashioned word, he was a braggart."

"When a person would first meet Bernays," says Cutlip, "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 the early 1920s, Bernays arranged for the US publication of an English-language translation of Freud's General Introduction to Psychoanalysis. In addition to publicizing Freud's ideas, Bernays used his association with Freud to establish his own reputation as a thinker and theorist—a reputation that was further enhanced when Bernays authored several landmark texts of his own, most notably Crystallizing Public Opinion (1923, ISBN 0-87140-975-5), Propaganda (1928, ISBN 0-8046-1511-X) and "The Engineering of Consent" in Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science (March 1947). This article or section is not written in the formal tone expected of an encyclopedia article. ...

Bernays defined the profession of "counsel on public relations" as a "practicing social scientist" whose "competence is like that of the industrial engineer, the management engineer, or the investment counselor in their respective fields." To assist clients, PR counselors used "understanding of the behavioral sciences and applying them—sociology, social psychology, anthropology, history, etc." In Propaganda, his most important book, Bernays argued that the scientific manipulation of public opinion was necessary to overcome chaos and conflict in society: The front cover of the 1928 edition The father of Propaganda, Edward Bernays defined the profession of counsel on public relations as a practicing social scientist whose competence is like that of the industrial engineer, the management engineer, or the investment counselor in their respective fields. ...

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 of society constitute an invisible government 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 politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical 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.

Bernays' celebration of propaganda helped define public relations, but it did not win the industry many friends. In a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter described Bernays and Ivy Lee as "professional poisoners of the public mind, exploiters of foolishness, fanaticism and self-interest." And history showed the flaw in Bernays' identification of the "manipulation of the masses" as a natural and necessary feature of a democratic society. The fascist rise to power in Germany demonstrated that propaganda could be used to subvert democracy as easily as it could be used to "resolve conflict." An Australian anti-conscription propaganda poster from World War One U.S. propaganda poster, which warns against civilians sharing information on troop movements (National Archives) The much-imitated 1914 Lord Kitchener Wants You! poster Swedish Anti-Euro propaganda for the referendum of 2003. ... Public relations (PR) is the business, organizational, philanthropic, or social function of managing communication between an organization and its audiences. ... FDR redirects here. ... The supreme court in some countries, provinces, and states, functions as a court of last resort whose rulings cannot be challenged. ... Felix Frankfurter (November 15, 1882 – February 22, 1965) was an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. ... Ivy Ledbetter Lee (July 16, 1877 – November 9, 1934) is considered by some to be the founder of modern public relations, although the title could also be held by Edward Bernays. ... Democracy (literally rule by the people, from the Greek demos, people, and kratos, rule[1]) is a form of government. ... Fascism is an authoritarian political ideology and mass movement that seeks to place the nation, defined in exclusive biological, cultural, and historical terms, above all other loyalties, and to create a mobilized national community. ...

In his autobiography, titled Biography of an Idea, Bernays recalls a dinner at his home in 1933 where

Karl von Weigand, foreign correspondent of the Hearst newspapers, an old hand at interpreting Europe and just returned from Germany, was telling us about Goebbels and his propaganda plans to consolidate Nazi power. Goebbels had shown Weigand his propaganda library, the best Weigand had ever seen. Goebbels, said Weigand, was using my book Crystallizing Public Opinion as a basis for his destructive campaign against the Jews of Germany. This shocked me. ... Obviously the attack on the Jews of Germany was no emotional outburst of the Nazis, but a deliberate, planned campaign.

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. As a result his legacy remains a highly contested one, as evidenced by the 2002 BBC documentary The Century of the Self, where he is described as "undemocratic". 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. This article is 150 kilobytes or more in size. ... Paul Joseph Goebbels (29 October 1897–1 May 1945) was a German politician and Minister for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda during the Nazi regime from 1933 to 1945. ... The Century of the Self is an acclaimed documentary by filmmaker Adam Curtis released in 2002. ... (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999...

Bernays is held in high regard by some and thoroughly despised by others even today, and was even named as one of the 1,000 most influential people of all time.

In addition to his uncle Freud, Bernays also used the theories of Ivan Pavlov. Sigmund Freud His famous couch Sigmund Freud (May 6, 1856 - September 23, 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of the psychoanalytic school of psychology, a movement that popularized the theory that unconscious motives control much behavior. ... Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (Russian: ) (September 14, 1849 – February 27, 1936) was a Russian physiologist, psychologist, and physician. ...

See also

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Edward Bernays

• Advertising
• Propaganda
• Public relations
• The Engineering of Consent
• Walter Lippmann

Image File history File links Wikiquote-logo-en. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Commercialism redirects here. ... An Australian anti-conscription propaganda poster from World War One U.S. propaganda poster, which warns against civilians sharing information on troop movements (National Archives) The much-imitated 1914 Lord Kitchener Wants You! poster Swedish Anti-Euro propaganda for the referendum of 2003. ... Public relations (PR) is the business, organizational, philanthropic, or social function of managing communication between an organization and its audiences. ... This article or section is not written in the formal tone expected of an encyclopedia article. ... Walter Lippmann (September 23, 1889 - December 14, 1974) was an influential United States writer, journalist, and political commentator. ...

Sources

• John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton, Toxic Sludge Is Good For You: Lies, Damn Lies and the Public Relations Industry

John Stauber is an American writer and political activist who co-authored five books about propaganda by governments, private interests and the PR industry. ... Sheldon Rampton (born August 4, 1957) is the editor of PR Watch, and the author of several books that criticize the public relations industry and what he sees as other forms of corporate and government propaganda. ...

Bibliography

• Bernays, E. (1928) Propaganda. Horace Liveright

Resources

• The full text of Propaganda (1928) by Edward Bernays
• Torches of Freedom Video Clip
• Video clip: [Edward L. Bernays tells the story of "Torches of Freedom" in his own words, 1999]
• Edward Bernays, Biography of an Idea: Memoirs of a Public Relations Counsel
• Edward Bernays, Crystallizing Public Opinion
• Larry Tye, The Father of Spin: Edward L. Bernays and the Birth of Public Relations (1998, ISBN 0-517-70435-8)
• http://www.prwatch.org/prwissues/1999Q2/bernays.html, the Father of Spin.
• Scott Cutlip, The Unseen Power: Public Relations: A History (1994, ISBN 0-8058-1464-7)
• Stuart Ewen, PR! A Social History of Spin (1996, ISBN 0-465-06168-0, excerpt)
• Adam Curtis, The Century Of The Self, a 4-part BBC TV series.
• National Public Radio historical report on Bernays (includes Bernays interview recordings) [4]
• Marvin Olasky column on his interview with Bernays at Townhall.com