Who was Edward Bernays
“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 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… ”
Who is the man in the picture whose words are quoted? You certainly didn’t learn about him in school during a history lesson from a text book, and rightly so for his work was such a success that it would go against his ideals to be known by the masses for what he accomplished. His name is Edward Bernays and he is known for being the “father” of public relations. Public Relations in fact is a term he coined himself to replace the word PROPAGANDA, the title of a book he also wrote. You see Edward was very good at wording things to make them more acceptable and to help desensitize society to ideals, products, and politics they might otherwise go against. Using his knowledge derived from his study of crowd psychology and psychoanalysis (his uncle was the famed Sigmund Freud) Bernays laid the strongest foundation for the modern pop culture obsessed society we now live in. His work is exactly how media is used by governments to advance their agendas and to mold the opinion of the masses in a technique he called “engineering consent”.
Bernays
helped create ad campaigns for tobacco companies in the 1920’s to
encourage women to pick up smoking. He manipulated results of surveys
among doctors to promote food products as healthy without any real
studies involved. He worked for various corporations then moved on to be
hired by the government contributing to propaganda training techniques
and even changed the name of the Department of WAR to the Department of
DEFENSE. He helped start the machine of fear mongering to influence the
populations support of government actions.
In modern times news media outlets have perfected these concepts and techniques, and even more so corporate networks and movie production companies have also learned to apply them to entertainment as well.
Combining this man’s lifetime work with a few other important influential people’s concepts and ideals we have what we now call Pop Culture. A society of idols and obsessions that distract us from truth and diminish the desire to seek it.
Who is the man in the picture whose words are quoted? You certainly didn’t learn about him in school during a history lesson from a text book, and rightly so for his work was such a success that it would go against his ideals to be known by the masses for what he accomplished. His name is Edward Bernays and he is known for being the “father” of public relations. Public Relations in fact is a term he coined himself to replace the word PROPAGANDA, the title of a book he also wrote. You see Edward was very good at wording things to make them more acceptable and to help desensitize society to ideals, products, and politics they might otherwise go against. Using his knowledge derived from his study of crowd psychology and psychoanalysis (his uncle was the famed Sigmund Freud) Bernays laid the strongest foundation for the modern pop culture obsessed society we now live in. His work is exactly how media is used by governments to advance their agendas and to mold the opinion of the masses in a technique he called “engineering consent”.
Bernays
helped create ad campaigns for tobacco companies in the 1920’s to
encourage women to pick up smoking. He manipulated results of surveys
among doctors to promote food products as healthy without any real
studies involved. He worked for various corporations then moved on to be
hired by the government contributing to propaganda training techniques
and even changed the name of the Department of WAR to the Department of
DEFENSE. He helped start the machine of fear mongering to influence the
populations support of government actions.In modern times news media outlets have perfected these concepts and techniques, and even more so corporate networks and movie production companies have also learned to apply them to entertainment as well.
Combining this man’s lifetime work with a few other important influential people’s concepts and ideals we have what we now call Pop Culture. A society of idols and obsessions that distract us from truth and diminish the desire to seek it.
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